Invert
by Marz1
Summary: HP FMA Crossover: They don't care about equivalence, only prophecy. Traveling in a strange world fighting human monsters in skull masks, Ed plans to show them how the world really works.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** Rowling owns Harry Potter and all affiliated characters. Hiromu Arakawa owns Full Metal Alchemist and all affiliated characters. I am poor, and it would be a waste of paper work to sue me.

**Spoiler Warning:** Harry Potter through book six, Full Metal Anime, through episode 50, but it starts around episode 40

**Author's note:** My ADD strikes again. I know I have three other works in progress and two other stories on hold. But this wouldn't get out of my brain. So here we go again. Remember to review!

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 1: Look Both Ways Before Crossing**

"I can't believe he's wasting our time on this," Edward Elric growled.

The short teenager lowered his head and walked faster, as if he were planning to charge straight through the wall at the end of the street. His two companions hurried to catch up. One was a similarly short man, dark haired and bespectacled, in a blue military uniform that seemed just a little too big. The other was in a towering suit of armor, studded with metal spikes, and coated with dust from a long journey.

"Brother, wait!" called an unexpectedly young voice from inside the armor. "You don't even know were you're going!"

Ed stopped, kicking a rock in frustration. "So where are we going Sergeant Fuery?" he demanded of the man in uniform.

"It's just a few blocks further, sir," Fuery said. "Can you hold this for a second, Al?" he asked the armor, handing over a lantern as he pulled out a note book to confirm what he just said.

Ed ground his teeth. It was hard to stay mad a Fuery, he was probably the nicest officer in the entire military. That's probably why Colonel Mustang sent him. He knew Ed would feel bad for acting like a jerk.

"Are you sure this can't wait? It feels like some kind of a trick," Ed asked. "They're about to invade Leore and he sends us off to dig up a dead Ishbalan's basement. If they had any useful alchemy they would have used it to keep the military out. Scar's carrying the only thing they had worth taking."

"The Colonel still wants it checked out. I have a feeling he doesn't want Colonel Archer to know about it until the last possible second if it's worth anything," Fuery added in a very low voice.

"How do you know that he doesn't already know?" asked Al.

"He would already have a team of goons around it if he did," Ed supplied. "Who found it?"

"They did a sweep through the city before they set up the command post in the main temple. The two soldiers who found it said they heard it humming," Fuery said.

"Humming?" asked Al.

Fuery nodded. "That's what they said. No one has heard anything like that since then."

They turned down another alley, filled with rubble from the collapsing buildings on both sides, and sand blown in from the surrounding desert. At the end of the alley was the ruined temple. It wasn't a building so much as a pile of randomly broken and scorched stones. A human skull peered out at them from beneath a cracked and tilted alter. They followed a set of boot prints through the mess leading to a recently uncovered stairwell.

"I don't think we should go down there," whispered Al. "Something feels very wrong about this."

"You can wait up here if you want, but the sooner we get this done the sooner we can go back to hunting Scar," Ed said.

"I'm coming, but we're going to do this fast right?" Al asked.

Al had his own reasons for wanting to rush. He'd let Marta out to use the bathroom before they left for the templeand she'd gone out a window. Al knew she was hunting for Kimley, the crazy alchemist who had murdered all of her friends. It was a fight she wasn't likely to win. He just hoped he could catch her again before something bad happened to her. They started down into the darkness. Al would have held his breath if he could have.

On his hands and knees Ed inspected the deep gouges, and veins of different composition on the surface of the stone. It was twelve feet in diameter and he was fairly certain there was more to it, under ground. There was a pattern. It didn't look like an alchemic circle, even one worn away by thousands of years of exposure. It was one though. He could feel it, resonating deep in the center of his chest, he could feel it. A part of him wanted more then anything to clap his hands together and start the energies surging, wanted to just turn it on, because even if he couldn't understand its purpose, he could understands its power. But reason won out.

"Anything yet Ed?" asked Sergeant Fuery.

Ed looked up from the stone circle.

"I don't have the slightest idea, except that it will draw a lot of energy when ever it does…what ever it does. Can you get me some tracing paper and maybe a lamp? Why'd it get so dark all of a sudden?"

"You've been staring at that thing for nearly three hours, Ed," called the monotonous but familiar voice of First Lieutenant Hawkeye.

"Can't have been-" Ed started to say, but Al and Fuery were nodding in agreement. "When did you get here?" Ed asked the Lieutenant, who towered over Fuery, holding a dying lantern.

"An hour ago," the stone faced Lieutenant replied, her red hued eyes glowing in the wavering light. "The Colonel wanted to know what was taking so long. From your expression I'd say you'd found something worth while."

Ed shrugged. "It could be a weapon or it could be a giant self destruct meant to blow this ruined city to hell. I can't tell. I need to study it more."

"The Colonel will be along shortly to get your report in person," the Lieutenant said.

"Great," Ed muttered. "I'd better get back to work then."

Ed crawled around the edge of the circle, inspecting the place where the circle met the stone floor. He pried loose a couple of stones from the floor and dug at the dirt underneath. He dug down half a meter, and still didn't come to the bottom of the stone that bore the circle. He got up.

"Everybody step back please," Ed said clapping his hands together.

"You aren't turning it on?" Al half asked half pleaded.

"No, just trying to get a look at the rest of it," Ed said, placing his hands on the floor next to the circle. The floor glowed a bright blue white and began to melt away from the stone, and creating a pit around it. It was as tall as it was wide, more importantly though, Ed could see that the pattern, the carving and the veins of rock, continued down through the cylinder. It was a three dimensional alchemy circle.

"This is…this is…" he tried to explain to the small group watching him.

"It can't possibly be stable," Al said, understanding.

"I think it goes through the center of the cylinder too," Ed said. "How could they have made this? It's almost impossibly complicated. The inner transcriptions can't even be accessible. I need some paper!"

Lieutenant Hawkeye, always prepared, took several large sheets out of the brief case at her feet. Ed snatched them with a rushed grunt of thanks.

"Al can you start tracing this pattern, and this one here?" He said thrusting the paper into his brother's hand.

"Alright, but I don't know if it's a good idea to be standing so close to it."

Ed climbed up on top of the cylinder and hopped up and down. "See, it's perfectly stable as long as we don't use alchemy on it. It's been here for at least a few hundred years, Al. Stop worrying."

Al nodded nervously. He took chalk from his belt and started tracing. Ed slapped some paper on top of the cylinder and started tracing as well. He was interrupted what seem like only a moment later by his commanding officer clearing his throat. He was about to object to the constant interruptions when he looked down and realized that he had already filled two dozen sheets with tracings. He didn't even remember Hawkeye handing him more paper. Ed hopped across the pit. The Colonel was a foot and a half taller then him. His dark hair and uniform hadn't collected a single spec of dirt. Ed looked down at himself. He was caked in mud from digging in the floor, and his hair was more dust colored then blond at the moment.

"Report FullMetal," Colonel Mustang demanded.

"Nothing to report yet…sir."

"Nothing? You've been here for almost the entire day. Do you at least have a theory?"

Ed nodded, his yellow eyes shinning. "It's an Alchemy cylinder."

The Colonel's mouth dropped open. "You can't be serious," He said looking over Ed's head to see the object of interest.

"Brother?" called Al from the pit around the cylinder.

"What?" Ed said.

"Brother, can you come here for a second?"

Ed could now hear an edge of panic in his brother's voice. He rushed over, and leapt down.

"Brother, my leg's caught." Al said.

Ed nodded. He hadn't actually needed that pointed out to him. His brother's armored leg, from his foot to the top of his thigh had sunk into the side of the cylinder.

"Did you use Alchemy on it?" Ed demanded as he grabbed his brother from behind and pulled as hard as he could.

"No! I was just leaning against it as I was tracing. It's pulling me in!" Al said.

"We could use a little help down here!" Ed called.

Fuery and Hawkeye scrambled into the pit. They grabbed Al and started to pull. Their efforts had no effect.

"The hell with this," Ed growled. "Everybody get back. Al I'm going to slice through your armor just above your leg. I'll make you a new one."

"Alright big Brother," Al said.

Ed clapped his hands together and with a spark of light a blade slid out of his right sleeve. He started to cut through the armor when the cylinder glowed. Al was yanked further in and his brother's arm, which had been between his chest and the stone was pulled in as well.

"Uh-oh," Ed muttered.

"Hang on!" Fuery said, grabbing Ed by the waist.

Hawkeye grabbed Al. Their tugging wasn't doing much good.

"Get something to cut us loose!" Ed shouted.

Fuery was clawing at Ed's coat. He was calling up to Colonel Mustang for help. Ed was only half listening. There was another strong tug and his right foot slid into the cylinder. He couldn't feel it. Al let out an anguished cry as his chest plate hit the cylinder and his helmet started to sink in.

"No, no, no!" Ed muttered, as his shoulder was pulled in.

"Let go!" Mustang ordered.

Fuery and Hawkeye didn't relinquish their grips.

"Sir," Hawkeye called. "It would be helpful if you could transmute some sort of cutting tool for us."

"It's too late. Let go!" Mustang ordered again.

"Sir!" Hawkeye grunted, "I think we can still-"

SNAP!

Ed's eyes widened as he realized Mustang was using his alchemy, but not to make a blade.

WHOOSH!

A rope of fire whipped up and slapped the two officers away from the trapped struggling teenagers. Fuery and Hawkeye fell back, fanning their burned hands. The last thing Ed saw was Mustang looking down at him.

"Guess I'll see you in hell," Ed growled as the stone pulled him in.

* * *

"It's been an hour," Donavan said.

Sorenson shrugged, and took another breath through his pipe. The smoke poured back out between the teeth of his skull mask. The skull's teeth were almost as tobacco stained as Sorenson's own. Donavan wondered whose skull it had been originally. He'd made his own mask from the skull of an old muggle born witch. Half her teeth were gone even before he'd killed her.

Donavan stalked across the field to Whidbey and Malfoy who were guarding the circle. Lestrange had wandered off into the woods, probably to kill small animals.

"Anything?" Donavan asked.

"No," Draco Malfoy answered in a monotone.

The boy had been talking like that ever since he was sent to make his mask. Half the Death Eaters though he was under the imperious curse, but no one had the guts to ask Snape about it. It wasn't their business anyway.

"I think we should cut his throat," Whidbey said, pointing to the bound prisoner in the center of the circle.

"The translation clearly stated a living body must be exchanged," Malfoy said.

"He hasn't died has he?" Donavan asked. "Maybe that's why it's not working."

They all turned to peer at the bound and gagged figure.

"He's still breathing," Whidbey said. "Maybe we should at least start him bleeding. It looks more like an Aztec Blood wheel then a Druid transformation circle. Maybe a little blood will get it going."

"He's already bleeding," Malfoy said.

"Maybe more blood," Whidbey said.

"Let's give it another hour," Donavan said. "Even if we are going to off him, we have to wait for Lestrange. She said she'd get anyone who got between her and him. That kid really must have pissed her off."

Whidbey leaned closer and lowered his voice. "She worked on him for six hours and he didn't break. With his parents it only took her two, so either he's made of stone or she's lost her edge."

"Keep that to yourself or she'll hone it on you."

"Something is happening," Malfoy said, startling them both.

Light danced over he patterns carved in the stone circle, glowing blue, silver, and white. It chased itself around the corkscrews and up the rays and then back into another loop. The light was so bright it turned the sacrificial offering into a shadow.

Malfoy sent off a message to Riddle Manor, alerting them to the change in status. The light dimmed a bit and the bound teenager sank into the stone. When he had vanished completely the lights went out. The death Eaters exchanged glances.

"That better not have been it," Whidbey growled.

"There," Malfoy said pointing.

The stones remained dark, but a hulking form was rising out of the circle. Malfoy raised his wand and cast light over the unfolding scene. A huge suit of armor rose out of the stone. This must be the power spoken of in the texts their master had found. It had to be some kind of mystical armor. The air echoed as five more Death Eaters apparated in.

"Is that a girl or a boy?" Donavan asked.

The rest of the Death Eaters turned to look at the diminutive figure standing slightly behind the towering armor.

"Doesn't look much like an ultimate power does it?" Whidbey said.

"Come here little one," Bellatrix called in simpering sweet voice.

Wisely, the kid didn't move.

"Atrel lsghnrk daht otg thgr rir?" the kid called out in a voice that was young but definitely male.

"Anybody understand that?" Whidbey asked.

* * *

"Do you have a really bad feeling about this Al?" Ed asked.

He didn't take his eyes off the figures in skull masks surrounding them, but he heard the clank as his brother nodded.

He thought they were both dead when the stone had pulled them in, but when the sky appeared above him and Al appeared at his side he thought things were gong to work out. Looking around though, perhaps he hadn't been that far off when he told Mustang he'd see him in hell.

"Can you start up the cylinder again?" asked Al. "Can you send us back?"

Ed knelt down. "I'll try," he said, clapping his hands together. "Warn me if any of them-"

A red light struck Ed in the chest and sent him tumbling into the snowy field that surrounded the stone. Al heard his brother swearing and knew he was alright. He charged towards the nearest of the masked men. A green light washed over him, but he didn't feel anything. He slammed a fist down on one of the masked men's head. As he went limp Al picked him up and tossed him into one of his companions. Other colored lights bounced off of Al. A few put dents in his armor or made him stumble, but they did little to slow him down. He slammed his fist into the chest of another of their attackers. The ground rumbled and he spared a glance at Ed, who was using alchemy to shoot spikes out of the ground and knock the skull men off their feet.

Ed clapped his hands together and a blade slid out of his right sleeve. He ducked under another blast of light and slashed his attacker across the chest. It wasn't a deep cut but the man dropped the strange stick like object he was using to shoot energy blasts at them. Ed's foot flew up and broke his nose. He snatched up the stick, but it didn't appear to be anything other then wood. He rolled sideways under another blast and clapped his hands again. He slammed them to the ground and a blast of earth and snow splattered two more of his attackers in the face. He somersaulted forward and took out the one on the left with kick to the head. The other one had recovered though and Ed brought up his right arm just in time to block a blast of red light that was coming at his face. His coat caught fire and he threw it off, exposing his auto-mail arm. The man who had attacked him started as he saw the artificial limb, and Ed took the opportunity to rush forward and crack the man's teeth with it. He looked around for someone else to hit. Only two masked freaks were left standing, a woman, whose dark hair stood out around her mask, and a tall pale teenager whose maskwas fallingoff. Ed watched both of them closely. They looked human, but then again, so did humunculi.

"Hey big brother," Al called. "Do you think it's some kind of alchemy they're using to make those energy blasts?"

"I don't know Al. But lets finish them off before we stop to chat," Ed said, as he pointed his blade wheedling arm at the two left standing. "Looks like you freaks picked on the wrong alchemists!"

The dark haired woman laughed, though Ed didn't think she'd understood him. The field around them echoed with a dozen gunshot cracks, and twelve more masked goons stepped out of thin air. Ed's triumphant expression faded. The new goons opened fire. Ed ducked the shots coming from behind him, but the woman in front of him was too close to miss. A green light hit him in the face.

Al heard his brother screaming and turned. His brother never screamed like that. Even when he was having his automail surgery he'd never made such awful pained noises. The world around Al tunneled in. All he could see was the laughing woman, and his brother writhing on the muddy ground. Blasts of energy hit him, but he barely registered them. He charged.

* * *

Severus Snape stood calmly back from the fight and watched as a half ton of armor collided with Bellatrix Lestrange, and huge fist slammed her into the ground. The blond boy was climbing back to his feet. He trembled from the after effects of the curse, but his eyes were narrow and focused on the other Death Eaters, who were closing in around him.

Amycus tried to hit the boy with a paralysis hex, but he easily ducked under it, and charged towards his attacker. The wizard tried a stunning curse, but that too was easily avoided. Amycus managed to fire one more curse, but the boy took it on his metal arm with no apparent effect and in the next instant, Amycus was in his reach. The boy was half his size but he easily over whelmed the wizard with a couple of quick punches and a kick in the stomach. Snape noted that the boy did not simply run his opponent through with the wicked looking blade that jutted from his arm. As the boy charged toward another Death Eater, Snape set up his shot.

The dislocation charm hit the boy in his right shoulder. In a normal human the hex would have left the arm disarticulated and useless, hanging at the victim's side. In this case, the boy's mechanical arm popped right out of the socket and landed in the mud a few yards away. The boy fell face first in the mud. Snape watched as Burke approached the fallen boy, and received a kick in the groin. The boy got back to his feet, a little off balance from the loss of a limb. His foot snapped up, catching the hunched Death Eater in the jaw and laying him out. The boy whirled, his eyes locking onto his detached arm. He ducked several blasts as he rushed towards it. Again Snape took his time lining up his shot.

The chain binding hex flew across the field and slammed the boy sideways into the ground. He rolled, kicked, and struggled as the chain snaked around him, but after a few seconds he was completely immobilized. Snape walked over to his prisoner at a dignified pace, his dark robes billowing around him. The armored one had seen his companion fall and was charging towards them. Snape muttered a spell and the end of his wand glowed with a wicked green light. Snape hadn't bothered to put on his mask. His own face was more then enough to send people fleeing now. He raised an eyebrow at the armored figure and then held his wand toward the immobile boy. The threat was obvious. The armored one froze.

The armored figure shouted something. It had the voice of a boy, but Snape could not understand a single word he was saying. He looked into the red glowing eyes of the helmet, but Legilimency gained him nothing. At his feet the blond boy shouted to the armored one in the same language. From his tone Snape could tell he was angry and afraid. He was probably telling the other one to keep fighting. Snape looked around. Of the dozen Death Eaters he had brought with him, four were still standing. None of those from the first two waves were still conscious.

"Activate the recall portkeys," Snape ordered without raising his voice.

Around the field unconscious Death Eaters flitted out of sight. Snape pondered for a moment. The armored one would be a lot of trouble to contain, and they wouldn't be able to do much to interrogate him until they learned his language. The boy at his feet was all they really needed at that moment. He leaned down and got a grip on his prisoner's chains. The armored one seemed to understand what was going on and rushed them, but Snape activated his own portkey long before he could take more then a few steps.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Stranger in a Strange Hat**

The wind beat at the trees, knocking pine-needles and snow loose. Most of the debris landed in the shadow of the pines, or were blown down into the over grown field, but a bit, just a tiny bit, seemed to stop in the empty air. The howling wind died away for a moment, and a fainter sound of empty sobbing could be heard. The pile of snow and pine needles shook itself apart and a series of foot prints slowly appeared crossing the white field.

Harry Potter adjusted his cloak of invisibility again as the wind tried to pull it away. The last hot spot on the tracking map had been in this area, and he'd gotten word from Kingsley that the Ministry had just detected several dozen apparations to and from the vicinity. He also heard they weren't planning to check it out. It wasn't much to go on. If the Death Eaters had a hideout in the area, they would have screened it from Ministry detection. Some places the Death Eaters wanted to be found though, especially if they had left something unpleasant there. Neville had been missing for three days. If Harry found him here, he probably wouldn't be alive.

The field sloped down into a shallow pond with a boulder and several spikes of earth around it. The huge rock seemed very out of place. The snow around the pond had been kicked up into slush. The sobbing was louder, echoing strangely. It was a boy's voice, but too high to be Neville's. Harry squinted into the darkness. Nothing was moving. He wondered if it was some sort of water demon trying to lure people into the pond. He crept closer and his boot scraped a patch of ice. The boulder jumped.

Harry's mouth dropped open as the "boulder" unfolded itself, shaking off snow, and got to its feet. The boulder was actually a man in armor, and the armor was at least seven feet tall with spikes jutting from its shoulders. The boy's voice echoed from the armor, shouting something Harry couldn't understand.

* * *

"Who's there?" Al called.

He turned in a circle searching for source of the sound. None of the men in skull masks had returned.

"Big Brother?" he called.

He didn't expect an answer. He'd searched the immediate area, and found nothing but snow and trees. There were no foot prints leading away, no tire tracks. It was as if they had simply vanished into thin air. He found his brother's automail arm lying in the mud. He'd dropped it into his chest plate, and finally he'd stumbled back to the circle. The snow that had melted during the battle had covered it with almost a foot of water. He had tried to activate it, to go back for help, but nothing happened. What else was there to do but wait? They'd come back for him eventually. Maybe they would take him to his brother.

"Who's there?" Al called again.

He heard feet crunching through snow.

"Who's there?" he called again.

"Ealadwerivaw alsldkja kajelt hogha alekuow?" a voice answered.

More words in that strange language his attackers had used, but this time they didn't sound threatening. He took a step toward the voice and he heard the other feet stepping back.

"Waheo ajo wahaot oh jhskltho ha hwaot huw?" the same voice asked.

"I don't know what you're saying," Al said.

The feet shuffled again and then a head and shoulders appeared, floating in the air a few yards away. The head wasn't wearing a skull mask at least, only glasses, and a dark knitted hat that hid everything but a thin pale face. Al would have said that the floating head was a teenager not much older then himself, but since it was a floating head, he didn't think he should be making assumptions. The head looked around suspiciously for a few moments and then two hands appeared. There was a flapping of cloth and suddenly a whole teenager was standing in front of him, holding a strange silvery blanket.

"Seadifa aeeoha aoeh aowewopf adoghogr?" the now visible teenager asked.

"I can't understand you," Al said, waving his arms, more in frustration then to convey a point.

The teenager pushed his glasses further up his face with his knuckles, and Al saw that he had one of those wands clutched in his fist. He tensed up and then the other boy tensed up. Al held up his hands in a calming gesture.

"I don't want to fight. I'm just looking for my brother," Al said, holding his hand out at about Ed's height and then holding his had flat above his eyes as if shading them while looking of into the distance.

The other boy looked around as well, but then shrugged. He pointed at himself with the wand.

"JEitj dasg Harry. Har-ry. Wahs ajshts swihj?" he said, pointing at Al.

"Har-ry?" Al asked pointing at the other boy.

The boy nodded. It was his name.

"Al," said Al pointing at himself. At least now they were getting somewhere.

They spent the next ten minutes pointing at things, miming things, and drawing pictures in the snow with their fingers. Al was now convinced that the other boy didn't mean him any harm, but he wasn't very helpful either. Al was trying once again to indicate that his brother had been kidnapped when several sharp cracks echoed in the air. Al turned and saw the men in the skull masks were back. He looked back towards the other boy but he was gone. Al was all alone again.

Or at least Al thought he was, until a blast of red light sent one of the skull men flying back into his companions. Another jet of light came from the empty air, blue this time, and one of the skull men fell face first into the shallow pond. Not wanting to be left out, Al grabbed a chunk of rock and threw it, nailing one of the skull men in the head. More skull men appeared. Al jumped as he felt a hand tugging on his arm.

"Ytwetrog aoer natrwer worg ghre!" said the other boy.

A hand came out of nowhere, pressing a spoon into Al's palm and then clamping down on top of it. There was a sharp tug on his chest plate and he could feel his brother's arm rattling around inside him. The world spun away.

* * *

His landing in front of 12 Grimmauld place was both more noisy and more awkward then usual. Harry still hadn't quite gotten the hang of portkey travel. He'd landed on his back on the walkway, which wasn't so bad really except that a moment later a huge suit of armor had landed on top of him, pinning him, and forcing all the air out of his lungs. He heard something clank as it hit the cobbles and rolled around.

Harry looked up and saw that the helmet had come off the suit of armor. A translucent blue face was looking down at him, blinking. Harry blinked back. It wasn't a boy in the armor, it was the ghost of a boy. Harry looked through the boy and saw a symbol drawn inside. It made his head hurt to look at. The ghost in the armor said something apologetically and climbed off him, groping around until its hands came upon the helmet and it put it back on.

Harry got up as well. None of the muggles on the street had come out to see what the noise was. Harry wasn't terribly surprised. It wasn't the best neighborhood. He grabbed the ghost/armor/boy's arm and led him up the walk to the Black Mansion. Molly Weasley was the secret keeper now, so to anyone who hadn't been sworn in, the house would be invisible until they were inside it.

The ghost, Al, Harry remembered his name was, made a disturbed noise as they crossed the entrance hall. Harry didn't blame him. Though he'd buried the house elf heads in the back yard and gotten rid of most of the furniture, the Black Mansion was still pretty creepy.

No one came charging to the front of the house to meet them, so Harry assumed that Moody wasn't there. He shut the door behind them.

"It's me!" Harry called, when he heard shuffling down the hall.

No one answered. Harry stood silently for a moment, the shuffling didn't come again, but he didn't want to take any chances. He grabbed Al's arm and lead him up the stairs, away from the noise. The study was empty so Harry left him there. He drew his wand, and descended the steps.

* * *

Al sat on the couch looking out the window. They were in a city, probably a big city. The cars were strange and unusually fast. There were wires coming out of most of the houses and through some of the distant windows he could see glowing blue boxes. He wondered if his brother was out in the same city. The skull men were probably doing horrible things to him, and Al couldn't do anything but sit and wait. He wished he could really cry, but all he could manage was dry sobbing sound. Ed might even be dead.

Al started as the largest cat he'd ever seen dropped into his lap. It looked up at him with huge yellow eyes and purred. Al patted it on the head. The poor thing had a smashed looking face, as if it ran into walls on a regular basis. He looked over and saw the door was open. A girl was standing in the door way. She was about the same age as Harry, with a mane of curly brown hair surrounding her head.

"WHTt awhe awharhg Crookshank, sjah e wuth e eiaoe," she said.

"I have no idea what you said," Al responded politely as he could.

She stepped inside and Al saw she had a huge pile of books under one arm, and a wand in her other hand. She waved the wand and a table appeared in front of him. She dropped the books on it and held out her hand.

"Swt hoatwio tjowitjo _Hermione_," she said pointing at herself. "Harry osdh iothe wof olsef Al," she said pointing at him.

Al reached out and shook her hand. "Nice to meet you Hermione," he said, hopping he had correctly picked out her name.

She smiled so he guessed he had. She waved her wand and conjured a chair out of thin air, then sat on it, and started paging through the books she had brought.

Al had watched her more carefully as she conjured up the chairs. She wasn't transmuting them from the floor. That much he was certain of. He knew of Alchemists who could transmute air, change its density or create whirl winds, but the properties of atmosphere were just so different from those of wood, it didn't seem possible to make one into the other. The homunculi could change themselves and regenerate in ways that seemed to break the rules of alchemy and equivalent exchange as well, but these people were not homunculi. That much Al was certain of.

A few minutes later Harry returned carrying more books, rolls of parchment, and an inkwell and quill. He sat on the couch next to Al and handed him everything but the books. Al started to draw.

* * *

"And he was just sitting by a pond?" Hermione asked, again as she flipped through another book.

Harry nodded, picking up one of Al's drawings. There was a little girl with a braid fighting with Death Eaters. He looked at the rest of Al's pictures. Apparently the girl had gotten her arm blown off and was then disapparated to another location. He didn't know what they could do for the ghost boy. They couldn't even find Fred and Neville.

It had been six months since Dumbledore died, and things were not going well. They'd only destroyed one Horcrux in that time, and lost so much. He pulled his knit hat down tighter. He'd been wearing it for a month since the hexes protecting Hufflepuff's cup had burned the hair off his head, and most of the skin off of the right side of his body. He'd been given a scar reducer when they released him from St. Mungos. He put it on every day, but it didn't seem to be doing much. Fred had teased him about it and offered him a wig. Then two weeks ago, Fred had gone missing. The Weasleys tracking clock said Fred was in mortal peril so they knew he was alive, but that was all they knew. Harry hoped Ron would get back soon. He and George were following a lead ontheir brother in Wales.

"I think I've found a charm we can use," Hermione said, passing one of the books to Harry. "There are translation potions but since a ghost can't drink this is our best bet."

Harry nodded looking at the page. The spell linked the caster to the recipient, and created a "path of understanding," which Harry didn't really understand, but if Hermione thought it would work, it probably would.

It took them nearly half an hour to convince Al that he should sit still while Hermione fired spells at him, but finally he did. The rose colored light of the spell spilled out of her wand and Hermione touched it to her forehead and then to the brow on the suit of armor. They both glowed for a second.

"Do you understand me?" Hermione asked when the light had faded.

"I hear words," Al said. "I hear my words but you're talking wrong."

"Do you mean the words you hear don't match the movements of my mouth?" Hermione asked.

"Yes," Al said. "How come I can understand you?"

"I used a translation spell," Hermione said.

"Spell? What's a spell?" Al asked.

"You know, magic," Harry said.

"Alchemy?" Al asked.

Hermione nodded. "That's one kind of magic."

"There's no such thing as magic," Al said.

Hermione and Harry exchanged glances. This was probably going to take a while.


	3. Chapter 3

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 3: Ed and Fred**

Snape dropped his captive on the dungeon floor. The boy looked almost like a doll. His huge gold colored eyes followed Snape's every move. The chain binding hex faded and the boy tried to get up. He over balanced, apparently forgetting that one of his arms was gone. Snape hit him with an impediment curse that knocked him flat. A broken doll.

The boy tried to crawl away as Snape conjured up new chains. Snape grabbed him by his braid and dragged him to the wall. He clamped a chain around the boy's arm and hooked it to a ring near the floor. As he shackled the boy's legs together he heard the telltale clank of metal against metal. The boy tried to hit him as Snape pushed up the cloth. Snape slammed his head into the wall, and used a cutting charm to open up the leg of the boy's trousers. From mid thigh down the boy's left leg was metal. Aside from the arm he'd knocked off earlier in the evening, Snape had never seen anything like it. It moved just like a real limb would have, but he couldn't detect even a trace of spell work. He wouldn't have give muggles this much credit.

Of course the boy wasn't a muggle. Snape had never seen the type of magic the boy had used, but without his arm he seemed unable to work it. He pointed his wand at the boy's metal leg and cast another dislocating curse. The metal leg popped off and landed on the floor with a dull clank. The boy tried to kick him with his flesh and blood limb, but Snape stepped back, taking the metal leg with him.

"Wasg aerga wimvim sek an agr kirote," the boy growled.

"No doubt that was very insulting," Snape said. "I would however suggest you enjoy the short period of time in which you are able to keep silent. It will not last."

The boy gave his shackles a frustrated tug. Snape didn't know what the boy thought he could do if he got loose. Two unmatched limbs were not the ideal for any kind of locomotion. He was somewhat tempted to let him free and find out. Perhaps he would later, after they figured out where he came from, and any other information of value. Snape peered into the boy's eyes.

Startling images flowed to the surface of the boy's mind. A terrified girl hung from a hook a few yards away while a man in butcher's apron swung a meat cleaver at the boy's head. A smaller boy flew to pieces in a storm of light. A grotesquely maimed creature flailed about in the center of a glowing circle.

Snape's head jerked back as something in the boy's mind pushed him out. The gold eyes were glaring at him. The boy had figured out how to occlude in less then five seconds. Snape raised an eyebrow. He could have broken back in, but he had other things planned. It would be easier to simple force feed the boy a translating potion and then truth serum. He summoned his assistant.

Draco Malfoy apparated into the room a moment later. The teenager had been getting a concussion tended to. The man in armor had done quite a bit of damage to him. Snape checked his pupils to make sure the imperious was not wearing off. If Draco was going to live, he could not afford another nervous breakdown.

"Make sure the prisoner doesn't go anywhere," Snape ordered. "If he does anything suspicious, stun him."

"Yes, sir," Draco answered tonelessly.

Snape swept out of the room, taking the metal leg with him.

* * *

Ed stared at the teenager who had been left to guard him. He didn't consider asking to be set free. The other boy's dead eyes told him such a request would be useless, even if he could understand him. Ed looked around again, but there weren't any more options then there had been when he was first dragged in. If he could find a loose bit of rock, he could scratch an alchemic circle into the chains and transmute his way free, but there was nothing in reach and the guard was barely blinking. He hoped Al had gotten away. Strangers seemed to really like his brother, and if Al had managed to get away from the masked freaks, someone would probably take him in. Of course that was assuming that not everyone in this crazy place was a masked freak.

His thoughts went back to the alchemy cylinder. It had obviously transported them somewhere outside of the militaries' jurisdiction, outside their knowledge even. Whatever these people were doing, making chains out of air and shooting fire and looking inside his head, it was not alchemy. It was like the rules of equivalency just did not apply.

But then again, maybe it did. Before the blasts of light came out of those wands the ones using them usually said something and waved them in a particular way. Maybe it was verbal alchemy, a pattern of sound instead of a visible array. That didn't seem possible, but until a few hours ago an alchemy cylinder hadn't seemed possible either.

Ed's musings were interrupted as the laughing woman from the circle came into the room. She started towards him, but the teenager guarding him stepped in her path. They argued for a minute, and then his guard stepped aside. The woman pointed a wand at him. Ed screamed, a lot.

* * *

Snape pulled the stopper from the bottle, and sniffed. The truth serum hadn't turned, but rats had gotten into the translation potion despite the charms on the cabinet. He'd have to brew a new batch. As he gathered ingredients he wondered why they were still bothering with these filthy caverns. The Ministry was in no condition to challenge the Dark Lord's followers, even if they set up camp in the middle of Buckingham Palace.

As he began to boil, crush, chop, and mix, the world faded away. The potion had just begun to hiss with faint whispered words when the torches blinked simultaneously, indicating that someone wished access to his potions lab. He waved his wand and the wall opened up.

"What?" he demanded, without turning from his work.

"There's a problem with the armor," the Death Eater said.

It took Snape a moment to place his voice, a new recruit. It was either Hallison or Henderson. He supposed it didn't really matter. He waited in silence for the man to continue.

"Potter grabbed him."

Snape turned.

"So not only did you fail in your assigned task, you missed an opportunity to catch the Potter brat?"

The other man did not answer.

"Why are you the one to inform me? Where is Lestrange?" Snape demanded.

"She said she'd question the other prisoner before talking to you," the man said.

Snape threw down the stirring rod and strode out of the room. If he hurried there might be enough of the prisoner left to question. If not he would have the excuse he needed to rid himself of Lestrange permanently.

* * *

**Five Minutes Earlier**

Ed curled on his side. It didn't really help to ease the pain, but it hid his hand and the small rock he'd come across as he writhed like an eel on the deck of a boat. He always seemed to come up with his best alchemic ideas under dire circumstances, and he was halving trouble coming up with circumstances much more dire then this. With the sound hidden by the woman's hysterical laugh, Ed scratched a circle onto the stone floor.

He was about to break one of the first rules of transmutation. Even the most uneducated novice knew never to disrupt the circle while it was being used to transmute, but as Ed thought about it, between shocks from that agonizing green light, it wasn't such a bad idea. If he just blew a hole in the floor they could come right after him, and he'd probably injure himself. If he started to deconstruct the stone floor, turning it into something like a liquid, and then broke the circle and cut off the energy flow, he would have a few seconds to pass through it before it returned to its previous solid state. Either that, or it would explode. There were other problems too. If he lost control he'd end up sealed in stone halfway through. No one he knew of had ever passed through the substance they were deconstructing while they were deconstructing it. He supposed it was possible he would just end up frying himself. _At least it will be a learning experience_, he thought as he scratched the final line, and pressed his hand to it. The floor around him glowed white for an instant and then he started sinking into it. He heard the woman screaming in rage, but then his head went under. He fell.

He came to a sudden joint jerking stop as the floor solidified again, leaving him hanging from the chains around his wrist and ankle. He groaned and struggled but he couldn't get his hand near the chain. He supposed it was a moot point anyway. He'd dropped the sharp rock he had used to scratch the circle in the floor. He'd bought himself a few minutes away from that maniac at least.

He blinked and looked around. There wasn't anything to see. The room was lightless. He could hear his panicked breathing echoing off the walls, so the room was small as well. Arms wrapped around him and he let out a startled yelp.

"Get away!" he shouted in panic, thrashing until he realized that he was being lifted up.

"Lao wahtio aohawgog ohaghn ohao heo," whispered a young male voice.

The words were completely unintelligible, but the tone was calming. He realized the arms were holding him up, taking his weight off the chains. He could feel the shackles around the wrists of the man lifting him. It was another prisoner.

Ed waved towards the floor. "I need that rock."

He knew that wasn't a helpful thing to say. And it was too dark to see. But the other prisoner caught on. He let go for a second, and returned a moment later. The rock was pressed into Ed's hand and he was lift up again. He scratched an alchemic circle into a link in the chain and pressed his fingers to it. It glowed and then snapped. He leaned over and did the same for the shackle around his ankle. The other prisoner set him on the floor. Without being asked Ed felt around for his companion's shackles and broke them apart with alchemy as well. In the few seconds of light created by the transmutation, he saw the other's face, pale, freckled, bruised and too thin, but grinning all the same.

Ed scratched a circle in the floor and pressed his hand to it, transmuting the stone just to create light. He looked around the room and saw there weren't any doors, but when you're an alchemist, that really isn't a problem.

* * *

Fred Weasley had been having a bad day, but it was getting better. It started off with a bowl of gruel, which he suspected had been spat in, if not worse, followed by a round of torture, the return of the gruel and another round of torture for the unforgivable crime of puking on Bellatrix Lestrange's boots. Snape hadn't come in to test potions on him yet, but he was expecting him to show up any minute. He had been thinking that yesterday was the worst day of his life, but today had been putting up a good fight for the title. But then a boy fell through the ceiling.

Then said boy started doing impossible things. Fred had put a stone in his hand and the boy had done magic without a wand, freeing them from their chains. Now the boy was melting a hole in the wall. And all of that with only one arm and one leg. When the light faded Fred stuck his head through. The corridor was empty. He ducked out and the boy crawled awkwardly after him. Fred knelt down, pulled the boy up onto his back, and started walking.

Until that moment, Fred had never considered piggyback rides to be particularly complicated. When his sister Ginny was still three and cute and willing to eat earth worms he and his brother George found in the garden, they'd carried her around in that manner all the time. This boy wasn't particularly heavy, but with only one arm and one and a quarter legs, it was a hell of time trying to keep him from sliding off onto the floor.

They came to another wall and the boy melted it. There was a Death Eater standing on the other side. Fred didn't even think about his next actions. He forgot about the boy. He forgot the other man had a wand. All he remembered was that for the last two weeks he'd been tortured everyday by someone with the exact same mask.

The haze didn't clear up until Fred realized the boy was waving his hand in front of his face. The Death Eater's mask had broken in half. The face beneath was pulp, groaning pulp. Fred looked at his still raised fist. His knuckles were bleeding. He shook his head and leaned back. He searched the Death Eater's robes and found a wand, a handkerchief, and some keys. Fred waved the wand and tried a lumos spell. The end of the wand flickered weakly.

"Damn it," he growled.

The wand was almost completely incompatible; it probably had dragon heart strings in it. He tucked it into his pocket and picked up the boy again. Even if he couldn't cast spells with it he supposed he could poke someone in the eye. They came to a staircase and went up.

Fred stopped short as he heard growling voices up ahead. A masked Death Eater stepped out of a wall and Snape stepped out right after. The wall sealed itself up behind them. The former teacher turned and strode off down the hall.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Fred asked.

The boy pointed at the wall. Fred guessed that meant yes. He melted their way in, and closed up the wall behind them. It was a potions lab. Several caldrons hung over fires, bubbling over with unpleasant things. He set the boy down so he could look around.

The boy let out a triumphant shout and Fred turned. The boy was pointing up at a high shelf, on which rested a metal leg. Fred hurried over and handed it down to him. The boy gritted his teeth and slid the end of the leg into the metal plug at the end of his left stump. The boy choked down a scream as the pieces snapped together. Then he stood up. He kicked the metal leg back and forth, and it moved just like a real one would have.

"Wicked," said Fred.

The boy smiled at him. The boy pointed at his eyes and then the place where his arm should be. Fred helped him look, but the arm wasn't there. They searched the room for several more minutes. Fred found some very explosive potions on the shelves and stuffed his pockets with them. The boy found a box of chalk and seemed very happy with it.

"Aht liotghnhiaw Ed thwio eaeroih," the boy said.

"No idea what you're talking about mate," Fred said.

The boy pointed at himself. "Edward."

"Oh," Fred said. He pointed at himself. "Fred."

They searched the room one last time. The boy found a paring knife. Fred made some contributions to Snape's cauldrons. Powdered dragon gizzard will make just about any potion exploded, the only question was when.

"Ready?" asked Fred pointing at the wall.

"Red dee," Ed repeated, and began to scribble with the chalk.

* * *

It took Snape a moment to fully process the scene before him. Bellatrix Lestrange was shrieking and tearing at her own hair. Draco Malfoy was watching the floor with a blank expression. The prisoner was gone.

"What happened?" he demanded.

Lestrange didn't seem to notice him, but Malfoy turned slightly.

"He went into the floor."

Snape grabbed Malfoy's jaw and tilted his head so he could make eye contact. Through Malfoy's eyes he saw the boy writhing under Lestrange's curses. He also noticed the boy was doing something with his left arm, shielding the action with his body. The floor glowed and the boy sank in. He let Malfoy go and walked to the site. The chains were taught, one end still attached to the ring, the other they blended seamlessly with the stone floor. He bent down and ran his hand over the stone. His brow furrowed and he sprang upright. He waved his wand and disapparated to the floor below. Aside from the chains hanging through the ceiling, and improbably broken shackles on the floor, Fred Weasley's cell was empty. Snape raised his wand to alert the guards when an explosion shook the room.

The guards had probably figured it out.

* * *

Fred stood with a vial of green liquid in each hand, watching the hallways as Edward knelt, scribbling away with his chalk. He had drawn a circle with some triangles and swirls in it. He finished and tapped Fred on the leg, waving him away. As soon as he was clear, Ed pressed his hand to the circle. It glowed and the hall shook. The glow traveled up the walls to the rock above them. The rock began to melt and reform into achimney through which sunlight poured. Fred whistled. There was still one problem though. That wonderful bit of sky was at least a hundred feet above them.

"Can you make hand holds?" Fred asked, miming climbing up the wall.

Ed shook his head and grinned. He added a few more scribbles to the circle, and waved Fred back over. Fred stepped up next to him. Ed slapped his hand to the floor again. It glowed, and started to rise, gaining speed until they were almost flying towards the surface. Suddenly they were tumbling down the side of hill. Fred recovered first and helped the smaller boy to his feet. He didn't recognize anything, but the hill had only a few twisted shrubs on it, and the forest below provided dense cover, so that's the way they went.

* * *

Snape walked calmly as the Death Eaters rushed by, several took to the air on brooms. Even without a tracking spell the stumbling progress of the escaping prisoners was easy to follow. He studied the path they had taken, and then raised his wand to apparate.

In the next moment he was in a glade half a mile from the hole the armless boy had made to escape the caverns. He heard the two prisoners coming towards him. Weasley was encouraging the other boy to hurry, who was in turn yelling back in his unintelligible language. They stumbled out of the woods, right into Snape's line of fire.

The blasting curse took the smaller boy in the center of the chest. Snape didn't understand his magic, so he was the greater threat. The boy flew backwards, bouncing off a tree and landing in the undergrowth. Snape threw another blasting curse at Weasley, but the obnoxious redhead dove into the undergrowth just ahead of the blast. It set the plants on fire, but not the brat. A groan caught Snape's attention and he turned to see the armless boy was staggering back to his feet. Blood was dribbling from the corner of the boy's mouth, and a scorched hole in his shirt revealed burned and cracking skin, but the boy had a paring knife in his remaining hand. He tensed, getting into a fighting stance. Snape knew it wasn't going to be much of a challenge to take him out, but as he watched his target, he noticed something about the paring knife. It was from his potions lab. And then Snape remembered something very important. You never turn you back on a Weasley twin. The vial struck the dirt just behind him and the eruption of fire threw him into the air, his robes in flames. As he twisted in the air he saw the prisoners were running again, but at that moment, Snape didn't really care.

* * *

Ed stumbled again. Fred caught his arm and dragged him forward. His leg wasn't working as well as it should have. The docking wasn't quite right, and each step was making it worse. The pain in his chest was getting worse as well. Ed gritted his teeth and ran harder. He could hear the skull men behind them. Fred looked back at him. They were going to be caught again. They both knew it.

Ed was about to suggest they split up when Fred pushed him. He let out a startled yelp as he put out his hand to break his fall. He scraped his chin on the ground. Fred stood over him for a moment and then shoved him into a clump of bramble vines.

"Hey!" Ed objected from the tangled mess.

"Taldf tlagrheg ethrl," Fred said, with a sad look on his face.

The larger boy pushed him further in. The vines scratched his faceand wrapped around his arms so he couldn't get loose. Fred turned his back on him and ran.

"You bastard!" Ed growled.

He couldn't think of any really good insults. His chest hurt and it was getting harder to breathe. He struggled, but that just brought more branches and leaves down on top of him. Soon he couldn't even see.

"Traitor!" he whispered mostly to himself as he heard foot steps all around him.

They'd find him any second and drag him back. Then he heard Fred shouting. The foot steps moved away in unison, and he was left all alone. He heard Fred shout again, branches crashed and explosions rang out as the men in skull masks fired energy blasts. Fred yelled again, from farther away. The other boy's voice was bold and challenging. Ed swallowed. Fred hadn't betrayed him. He'd hidden him and led the others away. Ed swallowed again and struggled to free himself. Fred wouldn't last five minutes on his own.

He got free, covered in scratches, and started running. There were shouts echoing in forest around him and flashing lights, but every time he stopped to get his bearings they seemed to be coming from a different direction. A huge shadow passed over him and he ducked down against a tree truck. He was already covered in dirt and leaves, so he was sure he blended right in. When the sky was clear he started up again.

His run became more and more shambling and each breath was a challenge. The ground seemed to be getting more uneven, the shouts of skull men and Fred were almost inaudible. He started to cough, and stumbled. He turned from side to side, but he couldn't tell which way the others had gone. His vision went dark for a second and he sank to his knees. He crawled into the undergrowth, and his eyes sank closed. When he woke up it was dark, he was freezing, and he was alone.

* * *

"What?"

"Stop the car!"

"Why?"

"Stop the god damn car!"

Toddstomped on the break and the van fishtailed and came to a stop across both lanes.

"What Marlene? What is so $#&ing important?"

"There's a kid back there bleeding to death on the side of the road. Is that $#&ing important enough?" Marlene shrieked as she got out of the van and went running back up the road.

The first thing Todd noticed was the boy's arm, the boy's missing arm actually. Under the mud and tattered remains of a black shirt he could see the right side of the boy's body was plated with metal. It might have been some sort of fitting for a prosthetic that wasn't there. And he wasn't bleeding to death. He was bloodied up, no question, but he was staggering along under his own power.

"Are you alright?" Marlene asked the boy.

"Could you ask a stupider question?" Todd called.

The boy held up his left hand and started backing away.

"It's alright," Marlene said. "It's alright dear, we want to help."

The boy kept backing up and he growled something in a weird Chinese sounding language. "Get the hell away from me" was how it sounded to Todd.

"Just leave him alone," Todd called.

Marlene ignored him. She took off her coat and tried to hand it to the boy. He just kept backing away. Todd suspected Marlene would have followed him all the way to Scotland if he hadn't slipped and fallen over. Marlene knelt down a few feet away and crawled towards him, still holding out the jacket. The boy was shaking, and it was obvious he was having trouble getting back on his feet. When Marlene reached him he didn't say anything, but he didn't push her away when she put her coat over him.


	4. Chapter 4

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 4: The Search**

Al shifted on the couch as quietly as he could. Harry had fallen asleep on the floor, face down on a book. Hermione had passed out with slightly more dignity, leaning back in her chair, clutching a book to her chest. Al wondered if he should wake them up. They'd spent most of the night trying to find a way to track down his brother, and find any mention of the alchemy circle in their books. Al knew they had started out tired. He wondered why they were working so hard to help a person they had just met. He was feeling more than a little miserable that he couldn't help himself.

Al picked up one of the magic books and tried to read it, but the "spell" that translated their words failed to translate their writing. He was stuck looking at the less than helpful pictures. He was still fairly certain they were doing some kind of Alchemy, but he couldn't come up with any reasonable link between them. He sighed sadly. His big brother would have figured this out hours ago. He was just wondering if perhaps he had the book upside down when he heard stomping on the steps outside. The door rattled and then burst open, and a large red-haired woman charged through. Al started to call out a warning to his sleeping companions, when he realized the woman was carrying a mop and bucket. She dropped it with a clang and Harry sprang awake, stumbling across the room and pulling his wand.

"Mrs. Weasley?" he asked, blearily, dropping his guard.

The red-haired woman said nothing at first, instead she snatched the wand out of Harry's hand and the knit hat off of his head. Harry's hands darted up as if to hide his scars and lack of hair.

"You haven't been taking your potions!" Mrs. Weasley declared.

"I…I have!" Harry said, reaching for the hat with one hand and keeping the other pressed to his bare scalp.

"Then why isn't your hair growing back?" Mrs. Weasley demanded. "I bet you haven't had a decent meal in a month. When's the last time you ate?"

"Uh…" Harry said, he looked to Hermione for help, but she was still more than half asleep.

"And you!" Mrs. Weasley said, turning on the girl. "I'd have thought you'd have some sense. You won't finish whatever this mystery job is if you die of hunger and exhaustion first!"

Hermione dropped her book as she stood. "We're fine, Mrs. Weasley. Really we are. There's just so much to do, and-"

Mrs. Weasley started shaking her head. She caught Harry's arm and then Hermione's and started dragging them towards the door. Al tried to sit very still and avoid the attention of this very loud lady. She wasn't quite as scary as his own Alchemy teacher, because she hadn't started throwing punches yet, but he didn't want to get in her way. Unfortunately, Hermione shook free of the large lady's grip and pointed at Al.

"We have a guest, Mrs. Weasley," she said.

Al slowly raised a hand and waved. The large woman looked at him suspiciously.

"You know you have to clear things with the Order before you bring strangers into our headquarters," she said.

"He's something of a special case," Hermione explained. "Al, please take off your helmet."

"I'd rather not," Al said. He didn't like being treated like a freak, and when people found out you're just an empty suit of armor, they have a hard time treating you any other way.

The big lady seemed even more suspicious, though, so Al reached up and obliged. Her mouth dropped open.

"Hello ma'am," Al said.

"Death Eaters worked some sort of transportation magic to bring him and his brother into England, using some sort of platform outside of York. We still aren't sure from where. They took his brother somewhere, and left him behind," Harry said. "I found him while I was looking for…for Neville."

"Oh," Mrs. Weasley said, shaking her head slightly. "Oh, you poor dear," she said, looking directly at Al. "How long ago did…this happen?"

"It's been about five years now," Al said, feeling slightly amazed that everyone was taking this so well.

The woman was watching him as if expecting more details. He wanted to change the subject but was rather at a loss for a method.

"How did you end up bound like this?" Mrs. Weasley pressed.

Al put his head back on and averted his eyes. "My body was lost in an Alchemy accident. My brother bound my soul to this armor, but just until we can get my body back."

"So you aren't haunting that suit? Your soul is bound to an object?" Harry asked. Suddenly his voice was sharp. "That requires a big sacrifice, doesn't it?"

Al wondered what they knew about transmuting souls. He felt the tension in the room then, and he felt his answer to that question was a life and death matter.

"His arm!" Al said, suddenly remembering. He pried open his chest plate and pulled out Ed's arm. It was still muddy from being dropped in the field. "My big brother sacrificed his arm. He got this automail replacement, but those masked men, the Death Eaters, pulled it off."

The three wizards stood staring at the mechanical arm for a long moment. The silence was broken by Harry's rumbling stomach, and to Al's relief, Mrs. Weasley dragged them down to the kitchen without further questioning. The kitchen was significantly less disturbing than the rest of the house, though Al could not really explain why. Mrs. Weasley took a wand from her apron pocket and suddenly the room was filled with flying pots and plates and produce. If Al had a mouth it would have dropped open. It was definitely not Alchemy.

"So what are you planning today?" Mrs. Weasley asked as she lit the stove. "If I'm allowed to know," she added slightly bitterly.

"As soon as Ron and George return we're going to go and get the stone circle that brought Al here," Harry said. "We're having a hard time figuring out where he was snatched from, but any way you go about it, the Death Eaters shouldn't keep that thing."

"The Death Eaters may already have moved it if it can be moved," Mrs. Weasley pointed out. "Or they may have a good reason for leaving it where they did. The Order is convening at three today, at least wait until then. Maybe they can help you."

"Can they come earlier?" Harry asked as he went to a cupboard and got out cutlery and mugs.

"I'll call around and see!" Mrs. Weasley said suddenly sounding very cheerful. Al got the idea that Harry didn't accept help very often.

"What's the Order?" Al asked.

"A secret society pledged to save the world from evil wizardry," Hermione replied.

"Oh."

Al sat awkwardly through the meal as Mrs. Weasley tried to make small talk with Harry and Hermione, who seemed very opposed to answering the simplest questions, even whether or not they had enough clean socks. They were so evasive even Al was becoming curious. He didn't want to pry, though. They had taken him in on faith and he figured he should be as discrete as humanly possible, so as not to lose that faith. Mrs. Weasley finally turned on him.

"So where are you from, dear?"

Al described Resembool, his hometown. He left most of the details about Alchemy out of it, instead focusing on the simple peaceful farming community. She asked about his family, but all Al felt comfortable enough to say was that his father had left them and shortly after his mother had died. Mrs. Weasley looked a bit teary and offered to adopt him.

They spent much of the morning trying to figure out where Al and Ed had been taken from, but the State wasn't anywhere on their maps. The continents weren't even the right shape. Al was getting very concerned. What if they hadn't been transported somewhere? What if they had just been trapped inside the cylinder so long that the world had changed around them? Hermione shook her head when he voiced his concern. She pointed at the arm Al was still carrying around cradling it as if it were a baby.

"Nothing like that has ever been invented. You may have come back in time, but it's very unlikely you've gone forward."

"You can't go back in time!" Al protested.

"You can," Hermione said. "You just shouldn't."

"Unless you have a very good reason," Harry added.

Al's mind whirled. "You mean you can go back? Make it so that terrible things never-"

"You can't change history," Hermione said, cutting him off. "Even if you do manage to go back and change the thing you meant to change, you risk altering and destroying everything that comes after. No one has the right to risk other people's lives that way."

"Oh."

"Usually you can't get back more then a few hours, anyway," Harry said. "When I found out it was possible, it ate at me, too. I thought about how I could save my parents, or maybe even stop the maniac who started this war and killed them, but if I did change that, everything else would change. If I stopped the war, maybe they wouldn't exist. Maybe I wouldn't exist. Going forward is the only way to stay sane."

"Oh. What war are you talking about?"

The maps were forgotten as Al was given the quick version of the battle against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. He was sure they were leaving something important out, since an evil man falling over dead when he tried to kill a baby seemed just as unlikely as the same evil man suddenly rising from the grave thirteen years later to start the war again, but he didn't pry.

"They're at war where I come from, too," Al said. "The State is going to try and put down a rebellion in Leore started by a madman with a fake religion. Brother and I exposed him for a fraud a couple of years ago, but I guess he came back and started things up again. We were going to try and stop the attack, but we ended up here. I hope everyone is alright. We have friends on both sides, and if they start fighting, people are going to die for no reason."

CRACK! CRACK!

"Sounds like the Order is arriving," Harry said, checking his watch.

"Hello Alastor!" Mrs. Weasley's voice echoed up the stairs.

Harry and Hermione exchanged looks and frowned.

"Is something wrong?" Al asked.

"Alastor Moody is not the person I'd have asked along," Harry said. "He won't believe anything we say. He might even try to stop us going."

"Harry is still sore at him for trying to slip truth serum into his drink the last time we were here. Though Mr. Moody did seem very impressed that you noticed him doing it."

"He was less then impressed when I poured the drink over his head."

"Well, yes."

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The house shuddered as more of the Order arrived.

"Should we go down?" asked Al.

Harry shook his head. "They want to talk about us behind our backs for a bit first. They'll call us down when they're ready to listen."

They waited for over an hour, paging through books until the air was split by another dozen gunshot cracks. Harry leapt to his feet.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"They've left!" Harry said. "They've left without us."

Al wasn't sure how he could tell the difference between going and coming cracks, but when they rushed down to the kitchen and found it nearly empty, Harry was proved right. Only Mrs. Weasley and a hunched, scared, gray-haired man with a glowing blue eye remained in the room. The blue eye was turning around in the man's head under no apparent control. It made Al queasy to look at, and he didn't even have a stomach.

"Sit down," the strange man ordered, pointing at the kitchen table.

Al sat, but saw that Hermione and Harry had ignored the command. He stood up again.

"They've gone to check out your stone," Moody growled. "Bill Weasley's gone along to check for curses. If it's some kind of trap there'll be hell to pay."

"I didn't ask them to go," Harry said, his jaw working slightly.

"No. You wouldn't. You don't know when to ask for help," Moody's glowing blue eye spun towards Harry. "Your burns aren't healing right. You aren't even taking your potion, are you?"

"I am, and stop looking through my clothes!" Harry said. "How do they even know where to go?"

"Kingsley tipped you off about the field in the first place," Moody said. "I told him to stop passing things like that along to you, but he doesn't understand how irrational you are. Trusting a thing you found left behind by Death Eaters," Moody shook his head as he said the last part.

"He's not a thing," Hermione said. "He's a boy."

"A dead boy, and I don't trust the dead," Moody growled.

"I'm not dead!" Al said, suddenly realizing they were talking about him.

"Alastor, you're upsetting him," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Ghost are always upset, that's why they stay."

"I'm not a ghost! I just need to get my body back."

"Do we even know if this boy we're looking for exists? Ghosts tend to lose the ability to distinguish between past and present," Moody asked.

"I'm not a ghost!" Al repeated.

"Can you prove it?" the old man said, glaring at Al with his glowing eye. "I see through that armor, and there's nothing but a trapped spirit inside."

"Stop picking on him," Harry said. "We've got nothing to prove to you."

The argument whirled around him. Al looked back and forth. He thought maybe he should prove it, but how do you prove you aren't a ghost? He'd never seen a ghost, so he didn't know where to start. He supposed the best he could do was prove he was human. Homunculi, artificial humans, couldn't do alchemy. He thought that would be a start. He picked up a bottle of yellow stuff up off the counter. It came out the top in a neat line, when he squeezed it, as if it were a pen. He drew out a quick transmutation circle on the floor, careful not to smear the lines. He pressed his hands to the circle. The floor began to glow. Slowly a chair pulled itself into being out of the wooden planks. The light faded and a rocking chair wobbled back and forth on a slightly thinner floor.

"See. I'm not a ghost. I can do Alchemy," Al said, turning towards the foul-tempered man.

The man was aiming a wand at him. Harry stepped in the way.

"Unless that was enchanted mustard," Harry said, "I think he's just proved he's still somewhat alive. Is that the Alchemy you were talking about?" Harry continued. "I thought Alchemy needed more potions or something."

"No," Al said, standing up. "You just need an array and the proper focus. My brother doesn't even need the array. He can just clap his hands." Al looked down at the arm he was carrying. "Well, for now he would need an array, too. That is, if he's still…I think he's still…they wouldn't bother to take him if they were just going to kill him. right? Can we go back to the circle now?" he asked Harry. "Maybe we can help your Order friends, or find some clues now that there's daylight."

Harry nodded. Moody objected. The windows rattled again as several people appeared out of thin air. All of them were wearing strange robes, but no masks. A woman with spiky purple hair slipped on the mustard on the floor and fell into the rocking chair.

"This is well made," she said patting the wood, as if she had intended to sit down in the first place.

"Al, this is Tonks, Kingsley, Wright, Ferguson, Jones, Bill, and Marsh," Harry said, stepping into the middle of the room as some of the newly appeared wizards started to draw wands. "Everyone, this is Al. I take it you don't have the stone circle with you."

Moody glared at Harry, as if he were speaking without permission. Harry ignored him.

"We put a Fidelus charm on it," Kingsley said. "It was the best we could do. Now they can't use it again. There were too many curses around it to move it. And as soon as we apparated in. some kind of alarm was tripped. Death Eaters were showing up right and left. No casualties, though, on our side. Alastor, I've got to get back to the office. I'll see you later."

With that, Kingsley disappeared. Al's head was whirling just a bit. He wanted to ask what a Fidelius charm was, but he had trouble working up the nerve.

"He only told them he was going for lunch. I was just getting off the graveyard shift when Molly called, so I've the rest of the day," Tonks said, as she got out of the chair. She slipped in the mustard again and would have hit the floor face first if Al hadn't caught her.

"I'll just clean that up," Mrs. Weasley said. She waved her wand and the smeared transmutation circle vanished.

Al watched as the members of the Order traded gossip and pleasantries. They made a few vague speculations about the circle, and a bit of small talk with Al, but he knew they weren't really comfortable talking in front of him. One by one they waved their wands and vanished, Moody glared especially hard at Al before he did so. Finally it was just Mrs. Weasley, Harry, Hermione and the wizard named Bill. Al was a bit shocked by the man's face, which looked as if he had been mauled by an especially viscious chimera.

Bill leaned over Mrs. Weasley and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I'm going to find somewhere to lie down for a bit mum; the Goblins gave me the day off." He turned and walked upstairs.

Mrs. Weasley smiled. "Of course dear. Dinner's at seven."

"What happened to him?" Al asked once Bill had left the room.

"Werewolf," Harry said.

"Werewolves are real?" Al asked.

Harry nodded. They left the kitchen and went back upstairs to research. As Al sat looking over maps of places that he'd never even heard of, he felt weary. How could he ever hope to find his brother in a place as big and strange as this?


	5. Chapter 5

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 5: Foreign**

The woman and her husband had argued every moment, but they didn't chain him to anything, and they didn't have wands. Ed had dozed in the back of their van, jerking awake at every loud noise. For a long time they traveled through forests, passing few other cars. When they did, Ed noted the cars' odd designs. He let his head rest on his arm, as trees rushed past. His eyes sank closed, and when they snapped open again the car was bouncing and weaving through a crowded city. It was as big as Central if not bigger. They stopped in front of a hulking stone building, with trucks covered in flashing red and white lights circling around them. The woman helped Ed out of the car and walked him down a ramp toward glass doors, which opened themselves as the party approached.

It was a hospital. The forever washed but still not clean smell told him that much. It was also crowded. People were rushing about and shouting, handing out clipboards. Despite the nap in the car, Ed still felt about three blinks from unconsciousness. The woman sat him down in a chair and went to the desk, where a woman in a fluffy sweater was handing out clipboards. They argued for a bit. Ed was starting to think the woman really liked to argue. She pointed at him and started shouting at the fluffy sweater woman. Everyone in the room was now staring at their exchange.

A man in a white lab coat came in, and after joining in the shouting for several minutes, he was dragged by the woman over to Ed. The man in the coat bent down in front of Ed and said something.

"I don't understand you," Ed replied.

The man, Ed supposed he was doctor, looked at the woman but she just yelled some more. The doctor sighed and very slowly reached toward Ed, pulling off the jacket she had loaned him. He looked rather dumbfounded as he looked over the automail plug in Ed's right shoulder. Ed hissed through his teeth as the doctor pulled his shirt away from the burn in the center of his chest. He said something else unintelligible and then helped Ed to his feet. They walked halfway across the room and then the doctor and another man, wearing what appeared to be blue pajamas, lifted Ed up onto a gurney.

* * *

"And he doesn't speak a word of English?" Inspector Holt asked Marlene Hartman, with as much patience as he could muster. It seemed like every third sentence she would begin shouting, whether prompted by aggressive questioning or not. Aside from her habit of browbeating her boyfriend into picking up random strangers on the side of the road, he hadn't garnered much useful information.

"I think he's learned what 'no' means," Marlene said. "Other than that he hasn't said much. We were going to call the police when we found him, but my mobile phone couldn't get a signal. So we brought him here."

"And you didn't see anyone else?"

"No, except for a few cars on the road about a half hour later, and they were coming at us, so they couldn't have had anything to do with this. Is he going to be alright? The poor little boy looked more then half dead."

"The doctor said the burns on his chest were third degree, and he has a fractured sternum. They were surprised he was walking under his own power. You didn't hear any explosions or the like around the time you found him?"

"No," she said. "Nothing like that."

"Alright. Thank you, Miss. If you'll have a seat, I'll get back to you in a moment."

"Yeah right," she said, roiling her eyes.

He didn't give her time to start yelling. Inspector Holt pushed his way through the swinging doors into the burn ward. Detective Andrews saw him and hurried over.

"Anything?" Holt asked.

"We've still got no idea what language he's speaking. I thought maybe Japanese, but we tried to put him on the phone with a translator and he just looked confused. I tried to get him to draw some pictures, but I don't think he understands what I want. He's been drawing robots and wizards instead of the people who attacked him."

"And the prosthetic leg? Can the doctors find a serial number or anything on it?"

"They can't get it off," Andrews said.

"What?"

"They tried to explain it to me, and I don't really understand it, but it's not a normal prosthetic leg, you know, plastic and what not. It's some kind of electronic thing that the kid can move on his own."

"Like that one they had in the papers a few months ago?"

"Better than that. Some of the doctors are almost drooling over this thing. They were saying something about it being wired right into the kid's nerves or something, and some kind of kinetic recharging something or other….I don't really know, but they think that the leg alone is probably worth a few hundred million as a prototype."

"And he's got a slot for an arm that's missing?" Holt said.

"Yes. He was trying to say something about the arm, but I wasn't following."

"So maybe this was a kidnap and theft that went bad? Alright, I'll contact Interpol, see if they have any missing persons matching this description. We'll put a guard on him as well, in case they come back for the leg."

Andrews nodded.

Holt looked at the boy's scrunched face as the doctors picked at his burns. He wondered how the kid had lost so many limbs in the first place.

* * *

It wasn't so bad, really, when they weren't poking him with needles or making him pee in a cup. Ed wasn't bored at least. They had given him a room with a window and a strange machine called a "Telly" which seemed to be a miniature movie theater. He supposed the projector and the film were on the inside, though he had no idea how that would work, or how it went to a new film every time he hit a button. He wanted to take it apart to see, but it was probably expensive so he didn't try. He didn't know how he was going to pay his bill as it was. It wasn't as if he could wire the military for his expenses.

The "Telly" showed him a lot about the country he was now in, even if he couldn't understand most of the language. They had lots of cars, and other complicated machines that Winry would appreciate. Every building appeared to have electrical wiring. They even had machines that could fly. Ed had seen them on the telly and didn't believe they were real until he saw one pass over the hospital. He heard a deep rumbling and realized it was the air machine's engines. It was amazing.

What he didn't see on the telly was any kind of Alchemy, or the strange thing the men who had kidnapped him had done. The people who had him now didn't seem to know those things existed. They had looked at him like a crazy person when he started to draw a transmutation circle on the floor, so he decided to err on the side of caution, and skip the alchemy for a while. He wondered if he had fallen through another alchemy cylinder while he was stumbling along the roadside. These people were so different from the others.

No matter how nice they were, Ed had to get away. Whether Al was in this world or not, Ed had to find him.

* * *

Hermione sat at the table watching steam rise from the serving dishes. It was unusually quiet in the Granger household. Her father usually always had some record playing on the ancient machine he kept in the parlor. She couldn't remember even one day in her life when the scratchy music wasn't at least whispering for attention in every room. Her father had turned it off when she came home. He said that he and her mother wanted to give her their full attention. She really wished they wouldn't.

"So Dear…how have you been?"

Hermione pushed the casserole around her plate. "I've been well, Mum, just studying for exams and things."

She hadn't gotten around to mentioning that she hadn't been to school since the previous June. It wasn't entirely a lie. She could still take the N.E.W.T.S even if she didn't go to class.

"It's just you've never been allowed to come home on weekends before," her father said.

"I told you dad, I've got my Apparating license now and they've relaxed a few rules because of the war."

Hermione took a huge forkful of casserole and stuffed it into her mouth to avoid answering questions for a few moments at least. Her parents made faces about her table manners, but she let it go. She'd been to see them every other weekend at least since she, Ron, and Harry had started their search. She'd put up wards around the house, and they needed to be maintained. They weren't enough to stop Death Eaters, but they would warn her. She and her friends just might have time to apparate or portkey in before…it was too late.

"So what have you been up to this week?" her father asked with overdone cheer. "Been turning Volkswagens into kittens?"

Hermione fought to keep from frowning again. Ron had returned with no new information on Fred and he hadn't reacted well when he found out that she and Harry had been spending a lot of their time helping Al search for his lost brother as well. She picked at the casserole wondering if the funny little crunchy things were onions or celery.

"Actually dad, I've been working on tracking spells. Death Eaters captured a boy's brother and we're trying to find him. We're trying to find others, too. It hasn't been working."

"Any idea why they took him?" her mother asked. In the next instant she made a face that clearly indicated she didn't really want the answer.

"He has some sort of magic that we don't use in England. I don't know what they think they'll learn from him. The poor boy doesn't even speak English."

"I know what you mean, dear," her father said. "My old mate from university stopped by for lunch, You remember Gavin Barry? He was at your seventh birthday? Gave you that sticker book?"

Hermione didn't have even the slightest idea of who he was talking about, but she nodded.

"Gavin went on to medical school instead of dentistry with me, didn't really fancy teeth. (You have been flossing haven't you dear?) He was telling me about this boy that was found wandering on the side of the road, didn't speak a word of English. They still don't know what language he's speaking, I mean, Gavin was stumped. They've tried eight linguists on him with no luck. But that's not the weird part. This part is confidential, mind you; the boy has a mechanical leg. Gavin can't even guess what country he came from, but that leg…"

Mr. Granger stopped talking as his daughter started to choke. Her mother slapped her on the back.

"What's wrong? Was it something I said?" Mr. Granger asked.

"Is…_hack_…is the boy…_hack_…missing his right arm?"

Mr. Granger nodded.

"Blonde hair, yellow eyes, rather short?"

"I didn't get all those details…"

"I…_hack_….need to know where Dr. Barry works."

* * *

There were always guards at Ed's door. Sometimes they would just stand outside looking bored. Other times they would come inside and watch the telly. Some of them even tried to talk to him, but he wasn't picking up the language as fast as he thought he would; me, you, mine, yes, no, Jello, chicken, rice, go away, come here, stop it, stay, help, scared, mom, England, remote control…

They weren't that useful, but they were better then nothing. A combination of "No!" and "Stop It!" were very effective when he wanted them to stop picking at his automail. When he got a talking guard, sometimes he'd wander around the hospital pointing at things until they were named for him. Of course, he ditched the guards as often as possible. He was doing that now in fact.

He'd been down this corridor before, but they'd caught up with him before the next turn. This time no one blocked his way. The turn revealed a very strange hall, painted with clouds and meadows and kids trailing kites. A nurse pushed a cart up the hall. She said something to Ed. He smiled and waved. She kept walking. He supposed he'd found his way into a ward set up for small children. He could hear the beep of machines and the huff of mechanical breathing. From one room he heard crying. Curious, he pushed the door a little further open.

A woman brushed by him, weeping and smearing black eye makeup all over her face. Ed looked into the room she had come from. There was a little bald girl lying in a bed, taking wheezing breaths around the tube in her nose. She looked towards him and smiled. With great effort she raised a hand to wave. Ed waved back. She waved again, definitely a come here gesture. Ed shuffled in.

"Hello" was followed by a string of incomprehensible high-pitched chatter.

"I not speak England," Ed said slowly.

The girl giggled, and set off on another chattering triad. "Sit" the girl finally said, patting the bed next to her. Having nothing else to do, Ed sat. The girl just kept chattering. She looked very ill, with sunken eyes and translucent skin, but there was nothing wrong with her voice. Ed tried to get up and leave several times, but the girl looked ready to cry. It was nearly an hour later when a nurse stuck her head in. In that time Ed picked up the following words; Amy, doll, fashionable, tea party, hairbrush, braid, lipstick and eye shadow. The nurse left laughing.

Ed scowled. He was coming to the conclusion that some time between the ages of five and seven all girls attended guilt school, where they learned to cry on queue. He grabbed a tissue off the counter and began wiping furiously. Amy didn't object. He supposed she had had enough fun smearing it on. He left the braid in though. It was his favorite hairstyle and nearly impossible to achieve while missing a set of opposable thumbs.

They spent another hour playing with pink plastic horses which apparently also wore makeup. Ed tried once again to leave, but the girl caught his arm.

"Wait with me. Wait with me until my mom comes back," Amy said.

Ed sighed and sat back down. "No lipstick!"

* * *

It was another bad night. Inspector Holt tried not to scowl as he drove down into the parking garage beneath the hospital. There were five other late night stops on his agenda, and he didn't really see the point in talking to the one armed boy again. Holt fought his travel mug free of its undersized cup holder and took a sip of tee. A flutter at the corner of his eye made his spit tea across the inside of the windshield. He turned in his seat, and saw there was nothing there now. But a moment ago he would have sworn the Grim Reaper was checking himself out in the car's side view mirror.

He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and climbed out. The garage lights flickered as he crossed to the elevator. He checked in at the front desk and went up to the room the nurse had indicated. It was empty. The guard was gone. He went to the nurse's station and showed his I.D.

"Where's the little guy with the missing arm?" he asked.

The nurse shrugged. "He's always wandering off. The guard went looking for him. I think Julie saw him in the children's ward. Let me ring her."

He waited as the nurse type numbers into her phone and after about five minutes of chatting handed the receiver to him.

"Who's this?" a woman asked.

"Inspector Holt. Have you seen the blonde boy with the missing arm?"

"Yes. He's in oncology."

"What's he doing in the oncology ward?" Inspector Holt asked, trying not to pull his hair out in frustration. There wasn't much of it left.

"Last time I checked, he was playing dolls with one of the patients."

"Dolls?" Holt muttered as the nurse took the phone back.

The nurse grunted. "He wanders around trying to talk to the other patients. He isn't doing any harm. I think maybe he has little sisters at home."

"He's not meant to be a babysitter," Holt said.

"Neither is this hospital. He's been well enough to check out for two days."

"Just tell me where to find him," Holt said.

The nurse started to draw out a map. Neither of them noticed the cloaked figure watching them. They jumped when an echoing crack split the air.

* * *

CRACK!

Ed jumped up, nearly sliding off the side of the bed. At first he couldn't see anything out of place, but then he noticed the shadow between the door and the wall was bigger than it had been. A cloaked figure stepped forward. He had a wand in his hand. Ed looked between the figure and the girl. If he fought, he might make it out of the hospital, but he doubted the immobile girl in the bed would fare well in the crossfire. Ed started to get up, and the man by the door moved slightly, ready for attack. Amy clutched his hand.

"Wait. Wait for my mom. Please!"

Ed looked back at the figure in the doorway.

"You must come with me," the figure said, the wand in his hand twitching slightly.

Ed swallowed, hoping he could make himself understood. "We wait. Her mom come back. I go with you. No fight."

The figure stepped closer and Ed saw it was a teenage boy not much older then himself. He was wearing a cloak like the skull men had, but under it he was dressed like one of the hospital people.

"You come with me," the other teenager said very slowly. "I'll take you to your brother, Al. We're helping him find you."

Ed started a bit as his brother's name was dropped, but he didn't move any closer. This guy could have been sent by Al, but then again that one freak had looked inside Ed's mind. He wasn't sure how much about him they knew.

"We need to go now!" the teenager said, waving the wand in his hand a bit threateningly.

"I wait. Her mom come back," Ed tried again.

The teenager looked frustrated. He took a mirror from his pocket and started whispering into it.

CRACK! CRACK!

The seven foot tall suit of armor caught his attention first, mostly because it shouted "Big Brother!" and came charging toward the bed Ed was seated on. Amy gave a shriek and Al skidded to a stop before anyone got squashed or toppled.

"Brother! What happened? How did you escape? Were you hurt? Where are we? Do you think we can get home?" Al asked. At least he was speaking a language Ed fully understood.

"I don't know," Ed replied. "Who are your friends?"

"This is Harry, Hermione, and Ron. They're wizards," he said, pointing to the teenager in the cloak, a girl with puffy brown hair, and an annoyingly tall red-haired male, who looked slightly familiar. "Guys, this is my brother, Ed. They've been helping me find you. There is a war going on between them and the Death Eaters, those crazy people in skull masks who grabbed you. We have to go soon, because the Death Eaters might have detected the magic they used to get here."

Ed looked over his shoulder at Amy. "I promised the kid I'd wait with her until her mother returned. She seems pretty sick," Ed attempted to explain.

"We have to go!" Harry said. "The Death Eaters will aotehat whoithw!"

"What did he say?" Ed asked Al.

"He just wants us to go now," Al answered.

"But her mom left her by herself…" Ed started to object. It wasn't a good objection. If those nut jobs were coming after him, the girl would be safer if he were on another continent. He still felt like crap, though. He couldn't even speak well enough to explain it to her.  
The puffy haired girl, Hermione went to the charts at the end of the bed and started paging through them.

"What do they say?" Ed asked his brother. "Ask her what they say."

"What do they say?" asked Al, in his own language. The girl answered him in hers. Al nodded.

"She knows what we're saying?" asked Ed.

"She knows what I'm saying," Al said. "I don't really understand how it works. She said your friend has 'cancer' and the medicine they are giving her to treat that is making her heart and lungs break down. They don't think she'll make it," Al finished in a whisper.

Ed didn't think it was necessary for him to do that, since the girl was gawking at Al and the three strange people in her room. Hermione and the other two wizards put their heads together and started whispering. The one called Harry took a green bottle out of his pocket and the whispering turned into angry hissing and head shaking by the other two. Harry walked over to the bed and handed the bottle to Ed. Ed saw the teenager's right arm was covered in burn scars.

"Give this to her," Al said, translating the gibberish coming out of Harry's mouth. "It's a regenerating potion. It won't cure the cancer, but it might make her strong enough to finish her chemo."

"What chemo?" Ed asked, though he didn't think much of his chances of understanding the answer.

"It's the treatment for cancer," Al translated, after a moment. "It's a poison that kills the cancer, but it also hurts you. He seems pretty sure she should drink it."

"Those other two don't," Ed pointed out.

"Harry is supposed to be using it for himself," Al said.

"Oh," Ed said. He handed it to the girl. He mimed drinking from the bottle. Amy looked at him for a moment and then tipped the bottle back, chugging the entire thing before making a face.

"I feel strange," Amy said, taking a deep breath. She raised her arms and waved them around. "But I feel better!"

Ed watched a bit dumbfounded as the girl's hair grew back, very entirely and suddenly. She ran her hands through it and started laughing.

"Someone's coming!" Harry said, and waved his wand.

The three wizards lined up along the wall, and Al hurried over to them. Ed shrugged and joined the line as well. The woman who had run out of the room crying, walked back in, still crying, with a doctor behind her. They both acted as if they didn't see the four teenagers and the large suit of armor. They stopped short when they saw the girl, though. Harry slipped out the door and the others followed as quickly and quietly as possible.

"Thank you witches and robots!" Amy called after them.

They ran down the hall, passed a nurses' station and charged right through a door that was covered in red warning stickers. Ed didn't know what they said exactly, but the 'keep out' was pretty clear. The door led to dimly lit concrete steps, which they rushed down. Ed heard a strange rattle as his brother hurried down the steps.

"Is something coming loose?" Ed asked, tapping his brother's metal side.

"I almost forgot I had your arm!" Al said, skidding to a stop and pulling open his chest plate. He fished out the artificial limb.

Ed took it with his left hand and inspected the docking plug. It was a little dusty but otherwise fine. He wiped it on the edge of his shirt. He looked up and down the stairwell. The three wizards had stopped as well and were looking at him. Ed frowned and turned his back on them. He clenched his teeth. There really wasn't anyway to put it off. He fitted the ends together and shoved. Fire shot from the center of his back up through the top of his head. He couldn't completely choke off his scream, but a second later his automail fingers started to twitch as everything equalized. He flexed his arm, and his grimace turned into a grin. He clapped his hands and his light blue hospital pajamas reformed into a black tank top and pants. They weren't exactly the right consistency to recreate his ideal wardrobe, but at least he felt more dressed. There wasn't much he could do about the floppy slippers, though.

Ed saw Harry was looking at a spoon in his hand with a very troubled expression. "What wrong?" he asked.

"The portkey isn't working," he said.

This didn't mean much to Ed, but everyone else looked worried.

* * *

"Can anyone apparate?" Harry asked, trying to keep calm.

Hermione and Ron waved their wands. Nothing happened.

"They know we're here. That's all," Harry said, his heart gaining speed.

He wanted to send the others out the back, and make a spectacle going out the front doors to draw attention, but the others would never go for that.

"Alright," Harry said, swallowing. "We send illusion doubles out the front and back, we go out through the parking garage. The Ministry should be picking this up, maybe we'll get lucky. If not, Al you're in back, the little guy is in the middle, Hermione right, Ron left, and I've got center. We'll go as fast as we can until we get out of range of the block. The second the portkey works, use it, Hermione. I don't care if there are fifty Aurors telling you not to."

Hermione nodded. Ron nodded. Al nodded. Ed asked Al if Harry had just called him short, but was ignored. They hurried down four flights of stairs into the underground parking garage. They waited inside the door while Hermione did a quick detection spell. It didn't pick up anything. Harry reached for the door handle, but stopped.

"Everybody disillusion," he ordered.

Hermione and Ron obeyed. Harry cast the spell on Al and his brother as well. The blonde boy made a face while the magic spread outward from the center of his forehead where Harry had placed his wand. The invisibility cloak would have been better, but they only had the one, and it was hard to fight with that thing on anyway. When everyone was semitransparent, Harry reached for the door handle again. Was he missing something? Was there anything else he could do to make sure all five of them got out of that building and home alive? There wasn't time. He turned the handle and pushed.

The garage was mostly empty. Only one in every five parking spots was occupied. The orange fluorescent lights flickered. Harry took a deep breath, and stepped out. He heard the others' feet behind him. His eyes darted right and left. The door slammed shut with a bang. He picked up his pace. The concrete ramp leading up to the street was still a few hundred feet away. Something fluttered in the corner of his eye.

"Down!"

The shout was halfway out of his mouth when the curse landed. Ron grunted as the petrifying curse sent him tumbling into Ed.

"Finite!" Hermione shouted, freeing him up again.

"Protego!" Harry shouted, deflecting the next shot. He clenched his teeth and fired a wordless blasting hex in the direction the enemy fire was coming from. Concrete went flying and a man shouted as he was knocked back, his feet exposed as his invisibility cloak tangled up. Harry hit the man with a stunning curse and whirled as another attacker came at him from behind a van. Harry set him on fire. He took a moment to look behind him. His four companions were still on their feet, but the exit wasn't getting any closer.

* * *

Ed ducked as the lights came flying at him. The three teenagers who had picked up Al seemed to have good intentions, but their ability to defend themselves was highly questionable. He moved his automail arm. The docking was still a little off, but most mobility had returned. He considered blasting apart the floor, but that might bring the entire hospital down on their heads.

A blast of green light forced Ed to dive and roll. Al had jumped the opposite way and the curly-haired girl had just flopped down flat on the ground and covered her head. The light missed them all, but their little defensive group had been split up.

Ed's eyes darted around. Four black-cloaked men were lying unmoving on the ground, but they were still being fired on from at least five different positions. Ed clapped his hands and stretched the cover-plate on his right arm out into a blade. He looked over at Al who was charging one of the enemy positions. Curses were knocking his brother off balance, but they weren't doing much besides denting his armor. They certainly weren't slowing him down.

"Greyback," shouted the obnoxiously tall red-haired boy, pointing past him.

Ed had an entire half second to wonder what the hell that meant before he was knocked sprawling and ragged claws tore through the back of his recently transmuted hospital scrubs. He rolled and sprang back to his feet, spinning and lashing out with the blade. A huge man was lunging at him and Ed's blade sliced across his chest and left arm. The man snarled and hopped back. He growled something, but Ed had no idea what he was saying.

"That better not be a short joke," Ed growled back.

The snarling man lunged again, and Ed ducked and kicked at his legs. Ed's automail foot nailed his attacker right in the knee but it had no apparent effect. The huge man tried to bear Ed to the ground but he rolled away again, coming up on his feet with the blade held out defensively. Ed was breathing hard and he suddenly noticed how bad his attacker smelled, like a latrine with a bunch of rotten meat on the side. His attacker said some other unintelligible thing and then licked his lips. Ed saw that he had pointed teeth.

Ed danced back from the man's next lunge, swinging his blade up and putting a nasty red line across his attacker's jaw. The rest of the battle was fading into the background as Ed focused on his attacker. The man was larger and much stronger, but his attacks were uncontrolled and predictable. Ed dove under another wild swing and kicked the man in the belly with both of his feet. The man stumbled back, but Ed hadn't managed to do any real harm. Ed rolled backwards and was forced to scramble out of the way of another charge. He was starting to think this guy was faster than he was. Ed didn't have time to bring his hands together and focus on a transmutation. He dodged again. Suddenly his brother's voice cut through the dull roar that had filled his ears.

"Brother! Use silver! Make your blade silver!" the small voice shouted from across the parking garage.

He'd need a few seconds to pull off something like that. He dropped away from the huge man's swing and kicked upwards, snapping his opponent's jaw closed with an audible crack. Ed turned and ran. The man was disoriented for only a moment, and Ed could hear him on his heels as he sprinted across the lot. He saw a red car, low to the ground with just enough space under it for him to scramble beneath. The wild man slammed into the side of the car, and Ed scooted further in to avoid the grasping yellow claws that reached for him. He brought his hands together and the blade on his arm glowed.

* * *

Harry ducked another curse and blinded his attacker with a blast of conjured sunlight. He followed up with a stunning curse and the man crumpled. He turned to find another opponent. The garage was getting quieter, and he heard one of the Death Eaters calling for a retreat. Most of his companions weren't listening to him. Hermione was back to back with the armored boy Al, blasting away while the boy shielded her from fire. Ron was cursing up a storm, dodging and rolling and letting out a lot of the anger he had built up searching for his missing brother. There was a loud metallic crunch and Harry whirled to see Greyback picking up the end of a car under which Ed had apparently been hiding. The blonde boy took off across the concrete like a startled mouse, dodging out of the way as Greyback shoved the car at him. The werewolf leapt after the boy, who hadn't managed to get back to his feet yet. Ed turned just as the werewolf landed on top of him. Harry rushed forward, but a blast of red light cut him off and peppered his legs with chips of concrete.

"BY ORDER OF THE MINISTRY YOU WILL CEASE FIGHTING AND DROP YOUR WANDS!"

The fighting did not stop, and no one dropped a wand, but the remaining Death Eaters apparently decided it was time to go. They retreated for the other end of the garage, leaving their fallen comrades where they lay. Harry, Hermione and Ron continued to fire after them, and a few of the newly arrived Aurors joined them. Most of the Aurors just stood around watching.

"You trying to figure out how this is done?" Harry shouted furiously, taking down one of the last fleeing Death Eaters with a blasting hex high in the back.

"You can stop now, Potter," said Kingsley Shacklebolt in a threatening voice accompanied by a reassuring wink.

"Count off!" Harry ordered.

"Here!" Ron called, kicking a downed Death Eater before stepping over him and walking toward Harry.

"Here! Hermione called, leading Al along and glaring at the Aurors who pointed wands at him.

"Where's Ed?" Al asked in a panicked voice.

Harry turned toward where he'd last seen the boy fighting with Greyback. The werewolf was face down on the concrete, but the boy was gone.

"That's Greyback!" one of the Aurors shouted dumbly.

Harry rolled his eyes.

* * *

Greyback twitched and the Aurors jumped.

"Careful," Dawlish ordered. He knew it was going to be one of those nights, one filled with paper work and carnage.

The body twitched again and then flopped over onto its back, dragging a much smaller blood-drenched figure around with it. It was a boy whose arm was apparently somehow stuck to the werewolf. He said something in a language none of the Aurors could understand. He looked at Dawlish, but he could only shrug. The boy sighed, put his foot on the center of the werewolf's chest and pulled his arm up. The appendage, and the half meter blade attached to it came free with an obscene popping sound and a splatter of blood.

"Uhhhhhhhh," Dawlish said, looking around for somebody with a higher rank.

The boy clapped his hands together in front of him as if he were about to say a prayer. The blade on his arm glowed and sank back into the metal arm from which it jutted. He turned to the side and spat blood onto the garage floor.

The fluffy-haired muggle born, whose name he couldn't remember, and the suit of armor walked over to the blood soaked boy. The girl conjured up a towel and handed it to the boy so he could wipe his face.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

He made a disgusted face and pulled his sticky shirt away from his body, then he turned around so she could see his back. There were four long red slashes through the fabric of his black shirt. He was so soaked in the werewolf's blood it was hard to tell if there was a serious injury under it, though.

"That little boy killed Greyback?" Wellman asked.

"Looks like," Shacklebolt said.

A flash of light made everyone jump. For a moment Dawlish was relieved to see it was only Rita Skeeter's camera man. His eyes darted around looking for the woman, wondering at the same time if his robes were on straight. She was already pouncing on the blonde boy who was staring at her blankly as the fluffy-haired girl glared over his shoulder.

"Maybe we should seal off the scene," Shacklebolt suggested.

"Right," Dawlish mumbled. "All civilians, line up here," he ordered. "You're coming in for questioning."

No one obeyed.

"You're in enough trouble!" Dawlish said. "Potter, Weasley…you three, get over here now!"

"Up yours!" growled the Weasley. Dawlish wasn't sure which one he was, Rob, Ralf, something like that.

Potter gave the rest of his group a significant look. They all lined up.

"Will we be taking a portkey or Apparating to the Auror offices?" Potter asked.

"Portkey," Dawlish answered, looking over the surly group.

"So you've knocked out the Death Eaters' blockade wards?" the muggle-born girl asked.

Dawlish nodded.

Everyone in the group but Potter vanished.

"Where did they go?" Dawlish demanded.

Potter shrugged. "Better things to do with their time, I suppose," the teenager replied.

Dawlish sighed as Skeeter's camera flashed again. "Then why did you stick around?"

Potter gave him an icy stare. "The Minister and I need to have a few words."

* * *

Inspector Holt peered around the edge of the pillar, took a long second to blink, and then looked again. There was still a large group of men in robes and pointed hats. There was still a large robot wandering about the scene after the missing boy who was soaked in blood, but had somehow come into possession of another mechanical limb. He watched him wandering around for a moment, and then with an echoing crack the boy and half of the strange robed people vanished.

"I need to transfer to day shift," he mumbled to himself as he edged toward the exit.


	6. Chapter 6

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 6: Say Thank You**

Al stayed upright as he landed, so everyone else did by hanging onto him. Al looked up at the invisible wizard house, and as usual, saw nothing.

"Where are we, Al?" Ed whispered.

"Their house, come on."

They followed Ron and Hermione up the walkway to a door that opened in the middle of an empty lot and led into a hallway. They marched into a kitchen where a large red-haired woman was leaning over a pot on the stove.

"Hey mum, we're back," Ron said.

The woman turned, saw Ed, and charged.

"Where are you hurt?" she demanded.

"Most of it's not his," Ron said, attempting to mollify his mother, as she started going over Ed's blood matted hair. Ed was starting to say that he only needed a bath when she pulled his shirt up over his head.

"It's not his blood," Ron said again.

"Who's…? Where's Harry?" she shrieked.

"It's not his either, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione said. "It's Greyback's."

"Werewolf blood? Oh lord. Ron fetch Remus. Now!" She turned back to Ed. "Are you hurt?"

Ed pointed over his shoulder and she spun him around. He hissed as she poked at the claw marks. He tried to look over at them, but he couldn't turn his head far enough.

"That monster," Mrs. Weasley muttered. "That foul…oh some day he'll get his."

"He already did, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione said. "Greyback is dead."

"What!"

Ed used the moment of surprise to wiggle loose and dart out of poking range.

"What did you say Hermione?" she asked in a small voice.

"Greyback, he tried to kill Ed and Ed…killed him."

Mrs. Weasley looked at Ed again. He looked down at himself. His arms and chest were covered in sticky lines of drying blood. His stomach twisted. He realized he now smelled exactly like the man who had attacked him. Mrs. Weasley saw his expression and dragged him to the sink.

"What happened?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Maybe my brother should tell you when he's done throwing up," Al said.

"What's going on?" a new male voice asked.

"Remus, he has werewolf blood all over him and look at his back," Mrs. Weasley said.

Ed felt people standing over him. He wanted to see who it was, but he didn't trust himself to lean away from the sink.

"Can the arm get wet?" the new man, Remus asked.

"Yes," Al answered.

Ed realized they were talking about his automail a moment before a torrent of water crashed over his head. He sputtered and tried to get out of under it, but his brother caught his arm. Just when he thought he was going to drown the water stopped. He pushed his sodden hair out of his eyes. The Kitchen floor was covered in an inch deep puddle of pink water. He was about to tell the assembled people off for the impromptu shower when he was enveloped in towels, and hustled over to a bench. He finally managed to get free of the towels, and saw Hermione coming towards him with an armful of bottles and bandages.

When his back was so taped up in bandages that he could barely bend, they backed off and started introductions. Ed met Ron's mother and Remus Lupin, a former school teacher who had some sort of expertise in werewolves. Ed didn't think much of the werewolf he had met. Greyback seemed more like a big rancid serial killer, rather then a supernatural creature.

"I'll fix you children up something," Mrs. Weasley said.

"So you killed Greyback?" Lupin asked as he closed up the bottles and rolled up the leftover gauze.

Ed nodded.

"How?"

Ed clapped his hands together and the cover plate on his automail arm jutted out into a blade. He raised an eyebrow at Remus, inviting further questions. Apparently there weren't any. He transmuted the cover plate back.

"Ed?" Al asked, sitting down on the bench next to him. "Hermione wants to put the translation spell on you so they can ask you what happened…after the Death Eater's caught you."

Ed shook his head. "I'm picking up their language pretty quick. Besides I don't really trust their Alchemy."

"It hasn't done me any harm." Al pointed out.

"No."

"He said no," Al told Hermione.

"It doesn't hurt," Hermione said.

"I don't care," Ed said carefully. "I will learn to speak England."

"English," Hermione corrected.

"I will learn to speak English."

Hermione nodded.

Mrs. Weasley set mugs in front of everyone and a tea pot floated over to the table and started pouring of its own accord. Ed hesitantly reached out and plucked the tea pot out of the air.

"How do this…happen?" Ed asked.

"How does this work," Hermione corrected.

Ed nodded for her to continue.

"It's charmed with-"

The kitchen door slammed open.

"Hello George," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Mum, what happened to the floor?"

Ed looked up from the tea pot and saw George. "I know you!"

George looked over at him. "'Scuse me?"

"I know you. You help me go from the Death Eaters. You go and I do not find you."

"What are you talking about?"

"You said before you are…Fred."

"Who are you?" George demanded, "And where did you see my brother?"

* * *

The Minister of Magic did not look up from his papers as Harry was shoved into a chair by his 'escorts' who then took up guard positions on either side of the door. He made no move to acknowledge Harry's presents. Harry retaliated by picking out a spot above Scrimgeour's left eyebrow and staring at it, in an attempt to bore a hole in his head. After about twenty dull minutes, the Minister waved his hand and the guards walked out.

"I hear you've added two new members to your little group," Scrimgeour said.

"I hear your Aurors are incompetent," Harry replied.

"Who did you hear that from?"

"The two new members of my group."

The Minister looked up.

"They were kidnapped," Harry continued. "from their own country by the Death Eaters. We assisted them. Maybe you could spare a few Aurors from arresting bus drivers to look into that sort of thing."

"Do you think its easy running a country, Potter?"

"The way you run it, it can't be that hard."

The Minister set down his papers.

"I won't tolerate vigilantism."

"So I should just stand there and be murdered?" Harry asked.

"There's rumor going around that the Dark Lord wants you captured alive."

Harry frowned.

"But that's neither here nor there," the Minister continued. "How did you know Death Eaters would be at that hospital?"

"We didn't. We were just prepared for them. They tend to show up whenever I stand still for too long."

"Don't shovel that in here. You go looking for trouble."

"In a hospital?"

"You're going to get yourself killed trying to carry out Dumbledore's orders, whatever they may be. I pulled your file from St. Mungo's. You're well on your way; third degree burns over half your body. The healers say that you haven't been back for your follow ups and that you never explained how you got them."

"Barbeque accident."

"What did Dumbledore tell you to do?"

"Kill Voldemort."

For a moment the Minister was nonplus. "Do you actually think you stand a chance?"

"Who else is going to do it?"

* * *

It was probably the most uncomfortable manner of transportation he'd ever experienced. Ed tried to balance on the narrow purchase, as he sat sidesaddle on the handle of a broom, five hundred feet above the ground. He was very glad they hadn't tried to take Al along too.

"You have to look around," Tonks said slowly.

Shaking slightly Ed pulled his head away from her shoulder and looked down. Normally he wouldn't be clinging like a baby monkey to some women he'd just met, but the day's circumstances were not normal. He'd never really been afraid of heights before. He'd been on cliffs, towers, bridges, but he'd never felt paralyzed before. Slowly he leaned away and looked down. There was a snaking two lane road beneath them, surrounded by night blackened forest. It was a road that eventually led to the hospital but none of it looked familiar.

"I see nothing the same. Go further," he said.

She nodded and they started moving again. Around them other shadows flitted through the air, other wizards flying on brooms. They called themselves the Order and Hermione insisted that it was alright to go with them, though she stayed behind. He didn't blame her for not wanting to come. Ed tried to keep his arms from locking around Tonks' neck. She'd complained once already about being strangled. He risked looking again. They were moving forward, but it felt like falling. Everything felt like falling.

Finally he saw something on a hillside. It was only a tiny speck in the distance, but he recognized the platform he'd transmuted to get Fred and himself out of the caverns.

"There," he said, letting go just long enough to point.

"I see," Tonks said. She waved to the others and they headed down. They hovered over the crumbling platform but did not land. They didn't know if the caverns were still occupied, so they would search the surrounding area first. They had decided before they left the invisible house, Grimmauld Place, that they would call in Aurors if a large scale raid was needed.

"Down that way," Ed whispered.

They darted down under the trees, twisting and dodging around trunks that were barely distinguishable from the starless night. They came to the glade where Fred had set the Death Eater on fire. They were close to the ground, so Ed slid off the broom. He stumbled as he landed. Fallen branches crunched loudly under his shoes. He circled the glade while they hovered over head, but he couldn't find the way they had fled the week before. The ground was wet. It had rained.

"I can't find…." Ed tried to explain.

"It's alright dear," Mrs. Weasley said, as she landed.

She raised her wand and started to chant.

"What is she doing?" Ed asked Tonks as she landed a few yards away.

"She's casting a 'blood calls blood' charm. It should help her find her son if he's close by."

The chanting was becoming louder and was starting to creep Ed out. Suddenly a light appeared at the end of her wand. It floated free, drifting slowly into the forest. She marched after it, and Ed and Tonks hurried to follow. They pushed through shrubs and tangles of thorns. Tonks waved her wand here and there. Ed supposed she was checking for traps or other wizards. Ed saw shadows over their heads as their escorts covered them from the air. The light led them down into a creek. There were craters in the surrounding mud, some of which had filled with water. The light stopped above a large tepid puddle. Mrs. Weasley slogged in.

"Here," Mrs. Weasley said.

The light faded away. Mrs. Weasley knelt down in the muck and felt around. Ed knelt down to help. His fingers closed around something solid and he pulled up. It was an arm. He pulled harder and a limp form flopped upright out of the water. Ed nearly lost his grip, but Mrs. Weasley caught Fred before he could sink back below the surface. He was cold, unmoving and unbreathing, but Mrs. Weasley was smiling. She pried open Fred's mouth and dumped in a vial of slightly iridescent mist. Fred's eyes fluttered open. He coughed up a blob of mud.

"Thing about draft of living death…hack…is knowing when to use it. Hey mum. What's for dinner?"

"Leftovers," she said and started to cry.

* * *

Harry stumbled through the door of Grimmauld place just after six in the morning. The Minister had thrown him out of his office after only half an hour, but the Aurors had kept him in their department for another eight hours answering questions, and filling out forms. He also had to come back in a week to file formal complaints against the Death Eaters who had attacked him. He'd expected someone to come see who was at the door, but no one did. It sounded as if a party was going on in the kitchen. He was just reaching for the kitchen door when Hermione came barreling out.

"They found Fred!" she declared, giving him a hug.

"How?"

"He and Ed were taken to the same Death Eater hideout. They escaped together. Ed made it to the highway and muggles picked him up, but Fred faked his death and spent the last week at the bottom of creek. Ed led them back to the base and they found him! Where have you been by the way?"

"I was at the Ministry filling out paper work to keep the goons who attacked us in Azkaban. Last time they had to let them go."

"Mrs. Weasley took Fred to St. Mungo's to have him checked out, and to make a statement to the Aurors. They're bringing him here later this morning, so we're throwing him a bit of a party!"

She pulled Harry into the kitchen where at least half of the Order was hanging around, either cooking or getting in the way of those who were. Harry was hugged and slapped on the back. He was told the Weasleys were all at the hospital with Fred. Though Harry had been feeling dead on his feet mere minutes before, he now felt well enough to take charge of the cooking. He also thought he was the only one qualified to do so in Mrs. Weasley's absents. Cooking dinner for his Aunt's rotund family was similar to preparing a feast for sixty people. For a while he just lost himself in the work and the relaxed social atmosphere, but it couldn't last.

"No! That has to stay on low heat! It's only simmering!" Harry shouted as Hestia Jones started turning up all the dials on the stove.

"Yes Mr. Chosen one," she said with a facetious salute.

After that Harry started hearing little echoes of Chosen one, and You-Know-Who throughout the room.

"What's he been up to?"

"-burned and potions aren't helping-"

"-keep and eye on him-"

"-mental help-"

"Would Dumbledore really give him a task like that?"

A tray of crepes exploded splattering several people with apple filling. For a moment the room was silent and Harry could feel everyone's eyes on his back. He ignored them all and kept stirring. He heard Remus then, starting up some inane conversation about Manticore nail shavings. Others took the hint and went back to whatever they were talking about before crazy/lying/doomed Harry Potter came into their minds. When the hum of conversation was back to its previous level Harry felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm busy at the moment Remus," he said, chopping at some onions that had already been diced microscopically small.

"You're always busy Harry, but you haven't gone deaf, so listen alright?"

Harry nodded.

"There are rumors going around that you had a very loud confrontation with the Minister last night."

"He's an incompetent idiot," Harry said.

"He knows what he's doing. It is simply that his goals are different from yours. He wants to keep order. You want to righteously strike down evil doers. At times your goals will overlap and at others they won't. You have too much on your plate at the moment to make enemies when there is no need. I don't care for Scrimgeour either, but can't afford to have the government against you again."

"I don't need help from people like him."

"You don't like the Minister, but you will very probably need him before this is over," Remus pointed out.

Harry shrugged and started chopping up some ginger. There wasn't anything to put it in, but it was in grabbing distance so it got chopped. Remus gave him a pat on the shoulder and turned to walk away. Harry picked up another chunk of ginger, trying to drown out the room with the thunk, thunk, thunk against the chopping board.

"Mind your fingers Harry," Remus said sounding slightly amused.

When Harry had a foot square pile of chopped vegetables in front of him, Hermione walked over to stare curiously.

"Where are Ed and Al?" Harry asked.

"Ed's asleep on a couch upstairs in the library, and Al's in there reading. I think all these people are making Al nervous."

"So they're just going to sleep up there all day?"

"Ed said to wake him up if there was food at the party."

"May I should have done that as well."

* * *

Ed was still only half conscious as his brother dragged him down the stairs.

"I need five more minutes," Ed whined, trying to sit down.

"Come on!" Al complained. "There's food," he added.

Ed stopped struggling.

The kitchen was packed with strange people in funny clothes. A few looked at Al but Ed was ignored, and for once it didn't seem to bother him. Ed headed for the nearest food laden table, filled up a plate, and then slinked into a corner. Al followed him much more slowly, having to carefully avoid stepping on people as he moved through the party. After about ten minutes, Ron, Hermione, and Harry came over to join them.

"How are you both?" Hermione asked.

Ed shrugged and kept eating.

"We're fine," Al said.

"Who are these people?" Ed paused to ask.

"The redheads are Weasleys, Mr. and Mrs. and that's Fred and George who you know, and over there are Bill and Charlie, and then those older ones are Muriel, Tomas, and Guinevere. They're your second cousins Ron?"

Ron looked up from his own plate long enough to nod.

"Why are they here?" Ed asked. "Only ten help us look last night."

"They're all glad Fred is alright," Hermione said. "And we rarely have cause for celebration these days."

"Oh," Al said with a sinking feeling.

"Who's that girl?" Ed asked.

Hermione looked over. "Oh, that's Fleur. Oh no, she's coming over."

The woman was tall, pale and unusually sparkly. She saw them looking at her and put on a huge well practiced smile.

" 'ello 'arry, Ron, 'ermione! Who are your friends?"

"I'm Alphonse Elric!" Al declared, reaching out to shake the woman's hand and knocking Ed's arm so that he nearly poked himself in the eye with a fork.

"This is my brother Ed," Al said, hanging onto the woman's hand until she sort of twisted away. She didn't seem putout by it. She turned her smile on Ed.

"I am Fleur Delacour Weasley. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Ed gave her a half hearted salute with his fork.

"You are thee one who keeled Greyback?" she asked.

"Keeled?"

"She means killed," Hermione said out of the corner of her mouth.

"Yeah," Ed said as he tried to wipe something sticky off his automail hand onto his pant leg.

"Oh you are such a brave little boy! Were you hurt?" she asked.

Al saw a vein standing out of his older brother's forehead, and grabbed Ed's belt incase he decided to charge.

"Did she just call me little?" Ed asked in their own language.

"Let it go Ed, please."

"And all of you helped too!" Fleur continued as if she did not see the murder in Ed's eyes. "I thank you all from Bill and myself," she said, and then turned and floated away.

"Wow," Al said. "That has to be the most beautiful girl in the world."

Ed shrugged and said something that would make him instantly and eternally a hero to every woman in the room. "I've seen prettier," he stated in very careful English.

"Who?" Al demanded.

"Winry."

Hermione slapped Ron on the back. "See, not everyone turns into a drooling idiot when a Veela smiles at them."

Ed and Al exchanged looks. The word Veela wasn't translating well. Ed guessed it meant pretty girl. He did think Fleur was pretty, but she was also conceded.

"Who is this Winry?" Fleur demanded, suddenly storming back to their corner of the kitchen.

"My automail mechanic," Ed said, stretching out his steel arm to show it off.

Al translated for him.

"Oh," Fleur said. "He is a close friend of yours then."

"She is," Ed growled.

"What does she look like?"

"Sort of like you," Ed said, "Except she doesn't bleach her hair."

Al made an unhappy noise before he translated.

"I do not bleach my hair!" Fleur declared.

"You mean it really is that weird color?"

"This from a boy with yellow eyes!" she nearly shrieked and then turned and stormed off.

"You shouldn't tease people like that, Big Brother," Al said.

Ed shrugged. A few minutes passed in noisy chewing that almost covered Hermione's giggles.

"So how'd you end up with…no arm?" Ron asked when he had run out of food.

Ed frowned.

"Al said you sacrificed it to bind his soul. Did you have to cut it off or something?"

Ed frowned harder. People asked him about his arm all the time, but he had never before felt any desire to answer. Answering had never been an option. Here the chances were slim to none that the people he told would leak the information to the military police, and it was even less likely that he'd get in trouble for his attempt at human transmutation, since apparently they did that sort of thing all the time over here. They might even know something about raising the dead, or putting them back down. Ed chewed on one of the unidentifiable green squares he had found on the table. He didn't think he had the words to explain it even if he wanted to.

"Pettigrew cut off his hand when they were making a body for Voldemort," Harry said, attempting to start the conversation. "He threw it into a big cauldron."

"I did not cut. It was taken," Ed said.

"Taken? By what?" Hermione asked.

"By the thing within the gate," Al supplied.

"I don't want to talk about it," Ed growled.

"Did you say someone was making a body?" Al asked Harry.

Harry nodded. "The one we're fighting, the one in charge of the men who kidnapped you, his servants made a new body for him. They used pieces from Voldemort's father's corps, Pettigrew's hand, and blood they took from one of his enemies."

Al thought for a second. "Do I have any enemies, brother?" Al asked.

"Nope. You're lacking three for three," Ed replied looking over the wizards. "They really made a flesh and blood body from those things and put a soul back in it?"

The three wizards looked over Ed's shoulder at Al. Harry frowned.

"Voldemort had already made a sort of proto-body to start with. I don't know how he got to that point."

Al's shoulders slumped with an audible clang.

Hermione started muttering to herself under her breath.

"What Hermione?" Ron asked.

"I was just thinking…"

"What?" they all demanded.

"We might….well not 'we' specifically but someone skilled in transfiguration, might be able to help Al."

"What do you mean?" Ed asked.

Hermione picked up a spoon and set it on an empty chair. She waved her wand and the spoon turned into a mouse. The small mammal darted across the chair and leapt, but Harry caught it with a lightening fast move of his arm. He carefully placed it in Ed's outstretched hand. Ed held it up. It was warm and kicking and he could feel its breath against his finger. It was really alive. It bit his thumb but he barely noticed.

"Do you think you could turn Al's armor body into flesh and blood?" he asked in a small voice.

"We can transfigure little things, but for Al I wouldn't trust anyone but our teacher," Hermione said.

Ron and Harry exchanged worried glances.

"Is something wrong?" Ed asked.

"It's just that we aren't looking forward to seeing our teacher again."

"I completely understand," Ed said.


	7. Chapter 7

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 7: Hogwarts**

Ed struggled to keep up as they trudged through the snow. His automail was stealing the heat from his body, leaching it away until his chest ached and his lift hip went numb. He started to wish he had allowed Mrs. Weasley to stuff him into the bright yellow "because it matches your eyes" sweater she had knitted for him. He had it in the bag he carried, along with other borrowed clothes. She'd made a sweater for Al too. He had it stuffed inside his armor.

"Are we there yet?" Ed asked through chattering teeth.

"Quarter mile," Harry said.

They all wore cloaks, even Al. Ed didn't think there was much point in hiding their identity. The town they'd apparated to was locked down. No one even looked out their curtains when they appeared with a bang in the middle of the main street. The wooded path they now traveled was quieter still. Ed tried to hunch up more, but the cold continued to seep in. Hermione had offered to put a warming charm on him, but Ed had turned her down. He didn't like their magic. He still couldn't reconcile it with alchemy, but here they were, off to see a witch in the middle of the night.

"Look at the stars, big brother," Al whispered.

Ed looked up at the thin line of space exposed by drifting clouds. They hadn't been able to see the stars from the house in the city but now there was no other light to blind them.

"Even the stars are different," Al said, sounding enthralled rather then disturbed.

He didn't see how his brother could be so calm. They were so far from home they might never get back. They had no money, no authority, and nowhere else to go. They were following people they'd known for less than a week, who promised to solve all their problems and asked for nothing in return. Ed didn't trust them. He couldn't trust them, not until they asked for something back. Ed bumped into Harry when they finally came to the iron gates. They were closed against them.

"Do we knock?" Al asked.

"No, one second," Harry said as he waved his wand and a glowing deer shot out of the tip and ran across the grounds. They waited. _A glowing deer, that made sense. _Ed stomped his feet and looked back up at the sky. This couldn't really be happening. What if they were still in the cylinder and it was just making them hallucinate? That was easier to believe then wizards and witches and airplanes. Ed looked through the bars of the gate and saw movement, a huge shadow just barely discernible in the falling snow. It was too big to be human, but as it came closer, Ed saw that it was indeed a man, a man who made Al look small.

"Harry?" the huge man shouted.

Harry pulled back the hood of his cloak and his friends did the same. The man pulled open the massive gate with one hand and the small party hurried through. The gate slammed shut after them. As soon as the metal clanged together, the huge man snatched up Ron, Hermione and Harry in a bone-popping hug.

"He reminds me of Major Armstrong," Al whispered to his brother.

"Yeah," Ed said, backing away.

"Air!" Hermione squeaked, precipitating their release.

"What have yeh been up to? Who're yer friends?" the giant asked.

"Hagrid, this is Edward and Alphonse Elric. This is Hagrid." Hermione said, ignoring the first question.

"Brothers?" Hagrid asked.

"I'm the younger brother," Al volunteered before anyone could get the wrong idea.

"Are yeh?" he said, looking between Ed and the towering suit of armor. "Well it's just like me and my little brother Grawp. I'll have ter introduce yeh. But I suppose yeh have business up at the castle, first."

They followed the man up a hill to a rundown collection of collapsing stone buildings. Ed had a very strong feeling that he should start walking the other way.

"This is the castle?" Ed asked.

"Oh," Hermione said. "You probably can't see it, because you're not a wizard. Al, do you see it?"

"It's amazing!"

Ed looked over his shoulder a little bit jealously as he started up the steps. There was a scorched wooden door which opened at Hagrid's touch. Beyond the door was something much more castle-like. Torches lit the cavernous entrance hall, and it was free of snow. A huge staircase led up and several smaller halls led down. Ed was already feeling lost. Their footsteps echoed. Ed shook off his cloak and went to help Al out of his, which had caught on his shoulder spikes.

"Turn left," Ed said, tugging on the fabric. "No, your other left."

"You need to lift it-" Al complained.

SLAP!

Ed and Al turned to see a red-haired girl had come into the entrance hall and was in the process of slapping Harry stupid.

SLAP! SLAP! SLAP!

"Ginny, stop!" Ron demanded, trying to catch the girl's arm.

SLAP!

Harry was making no move to defend himself. Finally Hermione had to grab the other girl in a bear hug to stop her.

"Not one letter!" the girl, Ginny, shrieked. "Not one letter in almost six months. I have to find out you've been hurt in the newspaper! What's wrong with you!"

"Looks like a split lip," Ed muttered to his brother as they watched Harry drip onto the floor.

"Who are they?" Ginny demanded, pointing at the Elrics. Her eyes widened as she took in Al. "I saw them in the paper this morning. You killed Greyback, didn't you?" she asked Ed as she shook off Hermione and marched over.

Ed nodded. "And don't slap me," Ed warned. "I'll hit you back."

She snorted.

"I just wanted to say thanks, for my brother Bill. Besides, I only slap boyfriends who don't call me for half a year."

"We broke up," Harry said in a small voice.

She headed toward Harry again, but Al rather forcefully caught her hand and started shaking it. "Hello, I'm Alphonse Elric. This is my brother Ed. It's very nice to meet you. Do you have any hobbies…?"

Al continued shaking her hand until a stern-faced old woman with a bun and glasses appeared behind Ginny. The girl shrunk a little under the woman's gaze, as if she could feel it on her back. The woman tapped her walking stick on the stone steps and the girl flinched.

"Ms. Weasley, return to the Gryffindor tower, and refrain from striking Mr. Potter."

The girl nodded and stormed off up the stairs.

"The rest of you, come to my office. Not you, Hagrid," she amended as the giant started up the steps.

Ed felt the hair on the back of his neck standing up. That woman was most definitely a witch.

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There were only two chairs, one behind the desk and one in front of it, but as they entered the room, McGonagall waved her wand and the chair in front of the desk stretched out into a bench. She pointed at it and the five teenagers sat. She took the headmaster's chair, and raised her eyebrow at them. On the walls around her office, several portraits raised their eyebrows as well. Her three former students shifted nervously. They hadn't told her they were coming, but Molly Weasley had informed her the moment they had left Grimmauld place. The armor and the small teenager were a much greater concern for her. The blond boy had been in Death Eaters' hands, and according to Molly, he'd used sacrificial magic to bring his brother's soul back from the other side and bind it. That took dark magic, very strong dark magic. But according to Molly and several other members of the order, the boy had no magic. He watched her every move with suspicious yellow eyes.

McGonagall looked at her students again. She did not speak. She waited. Hermione was the first to crack under the pressure.

"We didn't mean to just show up unannounced like this after missing so much classwork, but we have the mission and we're very sorry, but Al and Ed helped us out and really they've helped the entire Order, so we were wondering if perhaps you could make Al human again. This is Edward and Alphonse Elric, by the way."

The suit of armor gave McGonagall a shy little wave. The blond boy only watched her.

"That is why you are here?" McGonagall asked her former students. "The only reason?"

"No," Harry said rather boldly. "We want to look through the restricted section of the library, and go into the chamber as well."

"So you intend to stay for several days?"

"If we're allowed," Harry said.

Her eyebrow sank and those seated on the bench stewed for several minutes under the witch's gaze. She turned her head slightly, focusing entirely on Al.

"How did you come to be in your current situation?"

"I lost my body in an Alchemy accident, and my brother bound my soul to this armor. I was hoping that maybe you could turn my armor body into a human body, so I can be normal again."

McGonagall put her hand to her chin for a moment. They'd told Molly more then that. It was interesting what they left out. She wondered if Harry had prompted them. She didn't have enough time to do the task the school required of her, much less have excess to spend meddling in magic that bordered on dark. The voice in the armor sounded sincere, though, and afraid.

"Go to the hospital wing and wait for me there," she said to the armor, as she conjured up a guide globe and sent it on its way. "I will see what I can do for you as soon as I am finished with these three."

Al stood up, bowed and left, and Ed followed him with a nod in McGonagall's direction. She watched their backs until the door closed behind them.

"Do you trust them?" McGonagall asked.

"We do," Harry answered for the group.

"Why?" McGonagall asked. "Moody told me how you found them. Have they given you a reason to trust them?"

"No reason at all," Harry said. "In fact, their story doesn't make any sense. They stick to it, though."

"So you trust them because you have no reason to?" McGonagall asked in exasperation.

"Crookshanks likes Al," Hermione put in.

McGonagall sighed. The more danger they were in, the wilder their behavior. No doubt her next words would fall on deaf ears.

"I've been going over the instructions left by the Headmaster. I believe I now have some idea of the mission Dumbledore sent you on. For some reason you are searching for objects Voldemort stole. If I could find out this much the Death Eaters must already know. I honestly think you would be better off passing this task on to the Order, and returning to school."

"We can't do that, Professor," said Harry. "It's halfway done, and if someone leaks out what we're doing, our chances of success will be greatly reduced."

"If you keep on like you have been, your chances of survival will be greatly reduced. You're covered in curse burns, Mr. Potter." With a flick of her wand the cap flew off of Harry's head and landed on her desk. "Albus lost the use of his right arm and then his life to this mission, and though you are talented, you are still nowhere near his level. I ask you again to turn this burden over to me."

"You know he cannot do that, Minerva," said the portrait behind her chair.

Dumbledore's portrait was gazing down on them with an expression of annoyingly calm benevolence.

"I know nothing of the sort," McGonagall responded sharply. "You never saw fit to share your reasoning and judgment, so I must trust my own."

She snatched up a quill and scribbled out three all-purpose hall and library passes. "You may retire to your old rooms in Gryffindor tower when you are finished. I will send the Elrics there as well. The password is 'defiance'."

They nodded and left. She waited until they were gone and transformed. As a cat, her injured leg didn't bother her nearly as much. She darted down the stairs.

The boy and the suit of armor were standing outside the doors of the hospital, whispering in a language McGonagall didn't understand. They went silent when they saw her coming, in human form again. She waved her wand and the doors sprang open.

"Inside. We haven't all night."

Poppy was still at her desk sorting through paperwork. The nurse dropped it the moment the armor entered the room.

"Sit," McGonagall ordered. The armor sat down on the nearest hospital bed, causing it to sink dangerously in the middle. The blond boy paced in little circles at the end of it.

"Poppy, this is Alphonse and Edward Elric. We may be attempting an animate human transfiguration in the near future. I would like you to supervise."  
Poppy nodded but paled a bit. Animate human replicas were considered dark magic.

McGonagall turned to Al.

"I need to know how exactly your soul and consciousness are connected to that suit of armor."

"My brother did the transmutation," Al said through the translation spell. "I wasn't really there for it. Ed?"

The blond boy stopped his pacing and snatched the helmet off of the armor. The faint translucent face of a boy was visible beneath it, and through the boy the witch could see a symbol drawn in blood on the inside of the armor, between the shoulders. The blond boy pointed to the symbol.

"The soul is living," he started off in broken English. "The blood is living. The blood is iron. The armor is iron. They are linked this way so I can transmute and link one to the other."

"And this was all done through Alchemy?" McGonagall asked.

"Yes."

"Is he bound to the entire suit of armor or just the seal?"

"The seal. That can't change or he will come loose…"

"And this was done with Alchemy?" McGonagall asked again.

Ed nodded.

"I'm going to try something," McGonagall said, pulling out her wand. "Al, hold out your hand please."

The armor creaked faintly as Al obeyed. McGonagall placed her wand against Al's steel fingers.

"Verto…" she muttered.

Light poured from the wand. For a moment the steel shrank into pale fingers that twitched. Inside the armor, the blood seal flared.

"I can feel them!" Al whispered.

There was a pop and an outrush of air. The fingers at the end of the armored hand were steel once more.

"Something is fighting the change," McGonagall muttered.

She looked over at Ed, who was leaning into the armor peering intently at the seal.

"Don't know why that happened," Ed said, his voice echoing inside his brother. "You haven't…made different… the seal."

"I need a greater understanding of the magic you used to bind his soul," McGonagall said.

"Not magic. Alchemy," Ed corrected.

"Whatever it is, I need to know more."

"Then I'll tell you."

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It was familiar but at the same time strange. The desks and reading tables were in their usual spots, but the bookshelves had been rearranged to reduce the number of dark corners in which one could hide. The restricted section was guarded by the same woven wire cage, but now Harry could feel the security spells upon them as he grabbed the latch. His other hand held the pass McGonagall had given him, and it tingled as if conferring with the gate. It creaked open when he pushed and no alarm sounded.

"I'll be with you in just a moment," Hermione said. "I've a few other things to look up."

Ron nodded, unconcerned, but Harry couldn't help but notice his friend's slightly guilty expression. Harry tried to ignore the whispering and hissing of the books as he wiped the dust off their spines to read their titles. **_The Sundered Soul, The Eternal Torment, Lost in the Dark Realm_**, he stacked them up on the table in the center of the aisle. He looked over and saw Ron paging through **_Marked for Doom._** Harry frowned. They'd looked through that same useless book several months earlier in a shop at Dover.

"Ron, help me read through these."

"Right," the tall teenager said, putting down the book he shouldn't have bothered to pick up in the first place.

Ron picked up **_The Sundered Soul_** and turned up the lantern. He started flipping through pages far too quickly to be actually reading them. Harry tried not to get frustrated. Ron was becoming less and less focused as the mission stretched on, and since Fred's run-in with the Death Eaters, Ron's attention span was even shorter.

Harry picked up his own book. **_Lost in the Dark Realm_** appeared to focus mostly on people who sold their souls or had them stolen. Dementors had their own chapter. Horcruxes weren't mentioned, but there was an interesting spell that used the blood of the soulless person to guide the soul back to its body. Harry took some parchment and copied it down, anyway. He'd just started **_The Eternal Torment_** when he heard a faint croaking from the lower shelves to his right. He knelt down and saw a fat lumpy toad sitting on top of the **_Encyclopedia of Torment_**.

"Trevor," Harry muttered.

The toad started to hop away but Harry's hand darted out and caught him. Ron was looking at the toad as well.

"Neville must've lost him here when he was looking things up for us," Harry said.

Ron nodded. "Before they got him."

They were both silent for a few minutes. Neville had vanished from the school only a few weeks before. There was no trace of him, but everyone was convinced he remained in Death Eater hands if he was alive at all. It was not as if the Death Eaters would get much from questioning Neville. He had been forwarding information to Harry and his companions, but they hadn't told him why they needed it.

"Maybe we should-"

THUMP!

Harry was cut off as something large fell over on the far side of the library. He and Ron drew their wands.

GRRRRRRRRRRWLLLLLLL!

The strange animal sound echoed through the room, causing the teenagers' hair to stand on end. Whatever it was it sounded very upset and very large.

"Hermione?" Ron whispered.

Harry nodded. Silently they crept out of the restricted section, wands raised. Their footsteps echoed as they moved through the stacks. They nearly cursed Hermione when she leaned out of behind a shelf.

"Did you hear that?" Harry whispered.

"I didn't hear anything," Hermione said in a normal voice. "Have you found anything useful?"

She was looking guilty again.

"We've only just started-" Harry said, at the same time Ron was saying "No". Harry gave the other boy an annoyed look.

Harry was about to point out they'd only gone over three books when the door creaked open. They all whirled, and saw a small blond head pop through.

"Hello, Ed!" Hermione said.

Ed started slightly and bumped his head on the door.

"Hey," he said, walking in.

His brother followed him rattling and clanking.

"Where is Gryffindor tower?" Ed asked, carefully pronouncing each syllable.

"Why?" asked Ron.

"McGonagall says…said…told Al and I to sleep there," Ed finally said, waving off his brother's attempts to give him the words he needed.

"We'll walk you there," Ron volunteered. "We're done for the night anyway."

Harry frowned, but didn't argue. As they walked down the hallway, Al meowed. The teenagers froze and turned to stare. Ed growled something in his own language.

"But big brother," Al replied, "It was all by itself."

Ed repeated himself, and Al's shoulders slumped. He opened his chest plate and pulled out Mrs. Norris, the school custodian's tattle-tale cat. Ed pointed at the ground and Al set the cat down. It rubbed against his armored leg and then ran off down the hall.

"Wow," Ron said. "That's Filch's cat and it hates everyone."

"Everyone likes Al," Ed said, as if this were a very annoying fact.

"Let's go," Harry said with a sigh.

The common room was empty when they finally arrived, but a fire was still blazing in the grate. Harry waved goodnight to Hermione, who went alone up to the girl's dormitory. Ed and Al followed Harry and Ron. Dean and Seamus were still up and Dean fell face first off his bed in a flurry of textbooks when they opened the door.

"You're back?" the tall boy asked as he picked himself up off the floor.

"Your bed's came back," Seamus pointed out. "Plus two more. Who are they?"

"This is Edward and Alphonse Elric," Harry said pointing to the boys in turn. "This is Seamus and Dean."

"Hello!" Al said, trying to sound friendly.

Ed just glared at everyone.

"Hi," Dean and Seamus said awkwardly. They both gave Al suspicious looks.

Ed shrugged, flopped down on the nearest bed, and started to snore.

888888888888888888

Ginny sat up and looked out the window. It was still dark outside, but something had woken her up. She found her shoes. She hadn't changed into her pajamas. She spent so many nights sneaking around the school she rarely bothered anymore. She crept down to the common room. The sound of snoring covered the sound of her footsteps.

The little blond boy with the bad attitude was asleep on a couch, and his brother, still wearing armor, was next to him. Ginny watched the boy, Ed, roll over and continue to snore. He was wearing a yellow knit sweater she recognized as her mother's handiwork. She jealously wondered why that hadn't been mentioned in her mother's last letter. The right sleeve had come up, revealing an arm made of steel. His armored brother was still awake, paging through a book and mumbling over words as if he were just learning how to read. Dawn was tinting the edge of the sky. She wondered if the boy in the armor had been to sleep at all.

Ginny ducked back up the stairs as Ed stopped snoring, yawned, and sat up. He said something to the armor boy, Al. It was a language Ginny had never heard before. The translation spell allowed her to understand Al's answer.

"Your snoring got us kicked out, remember?" Al said, sounding more then a little annoyed. "You wouldn't let them put a sound canceling charm on your bed."

"Oh," Ed said, before rambling off another long string of his own language.

"That's not a good idea, big brother," Al said. "Your back isn't healed at all and your chest is almost as bad."

Ed responded with a string of gibberish.

"A week is not long enough for third degree burns and a fractured sternum to heal."

Ed said something else and crossed his arms. Al reached out and poked him in the chest. He hissed in pain. Ed slammed his fist into Al's arm and there was a resounding clang. Ed got up and stormed down the steps. Al hurried after him. Like a shadow, Ginny followed. She didn't have an invisibility cloak, so she'd had to hone her creeping skills. The boys left the tower and wandered for about half an hour before they found their way into the courtyard by the Herbology greenhouses.

They walked into the center of the yard and just stopped. The air felt tense. Even though she was expecting something she still flinched when Ed moved. He darted at Al so quickly Ginny wasn't really aware of what was happening until she saw Ed flying backwards again and rolling to a stop in the snow.

"Are you alright?" Al asked.

Ed responded in his own language with words Ginny was certain weren't friendly. He got up and charged again.

CLANK

THUNK

CLANK

WHAP!

It was amazing to watch. Al was as quick as his brother despite the suit of armor he was wearing, and Ed was up and fighting again an instant after he went down. They fought as the sun inched up the sky. Ed was breathing heavily but Al didn't seem tired at all. The fight seemed to grow more intense instead of less as wore on. She was watching so intently she didn't notice students from all the houses were in the audience until one of the Slytherins spoke.

"What are you fighting about?" Andrew Harper shouted.

His words echoed off the walls of the courtyard.

"We aren't fighting. We're sparring," Al corrected, blocking another of Ed's kicks and sending him tumbling back again.

"Doesn't seem like a fair fight, you against the little guy," the Slytherin boy drawled.

"Who are you calling short?" Ed demanded in careful English.

"You, obviously," Harper called back.

Ed starts telling him off in his own language.

"What's he saying?" the Slytherin boy demanded.

"Nothing nice," Al replied.

"Duel," Ed finally ground out.

The gathered crowed started to chatter among themselves. Ginny saw bets placed.

"Brother-" Al started to chide.

Ginny didn't understand the exact response, but the "quit nagging me" was obvious. Al backed up muttering.

"Duel," Ed repeated, not taking his eyes off of Harper.

Harper snorted. "As if I don't know you'll run off to the Headmistress the second you get a scratch on you."

Ed rolled his eyes. "Duel or shut up."

Harper pulled his wand, and without pause fired off a curse.

Before the "reducto" was half out of his mouth, Ed was moving. A lunging step brought him out of the line of fire. He sprinted toward Harper, who was trying to cough out another blasting curse, as his first had only singed the flagstones of the yard. Ed's foot snapped up, knocking Harper's wand aside, and Ed's left hand struck Harper in the center of the chest. The much larger boy fell over and curled up wheezing. Ed smirked as his brother approached him. Ginny could hear Al muttering about knocking some sense into who ever taught his brother the word "duel".

Harper's friends were in shock for a moment, but then they had their wands out and pointed at the boy who had taken down their leader. Ed didn't seem the least bit put out. He grinned as he faced them.

"Next?" Ed asked.

Ginny smirked to herself. _This kid likes to fight even more then I do._

Al stepped up next to his brother and pounded his fists against his chest, startling everyone with the clang. The Slytherins kept their wands aimed at the two boys, clearly not intending to take them on one at a time. From what Ginny had just seen she didn't think that improved their odds much. She wouldn't mind in the least if Harper and his goons had their heads handed to them, but if they were caught dueling there would be detentions and trouble of a more boring nature. Ginny sighed. _I should probably break this up._ She drew her own wand and crossed the court yard to Ed's side.

"Mind your own business Weasley," Corman Ashby said nervously, as he helped Harper back to his feet.

"Beating the snot out of Slytherins is my business. It's also my hobby and my favorite way to review hexes," Ginny said.

Harper staggered a bit as he got up. He gave his goons a significant look and they backed off, lowering their wands. They started wandering back inside. Harper stopped in the entrance way.

"This isn't over," he threatened.

Ed sprang forward and his elbow connected with Harper's jaw. Harper slumped unconscious to the ground.

"Now it's over," Ed said with a grin.

Ginny couldn't help but smile back.

"Is there food around here?" Ed asked.

"The Great Hall is this way," she said.

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He hurried down the steps. He'd been in detention, making up the potions assignment he'd missed while in the hospital wing. The sun had set hours ago, and the halls were dark, but he didn't think they were dark enough. Andrew Harper found the latch by feel, and opened the door to professor Snape's old office. The Headmistress had sealed it off rather then reassigning it, but her seals were not as strong as the spells the Death Eaters had provided him with, before the beginning of the term. He went to the small tarnished mirror that hung between two shelves of rotting ingredients. It was the only thing in the room not covered in a layer of dust.

"They're here," Harper said, without preamble.

Snape's reflection stared back at him. The former teacher's hair was hanging in his face more then unusual.

"Have you found out how the boy performs his spells?"

"No sir. I wasn't able to provoke him…sufficiently," Harper said, trying not to wince when his jaw clicked.

"And the armored one?" Snape asked.

"He hasn't taken it off," Harper answered. "He's been in and out of the library and meetings with McGonagall along with his midget brother. They're hanging around with Ginny Weasley. My source in Gryffindor says the armored one doesn't sleep, or eat."

Snape nodded. It was the closest he ever came to praising his operative.

"Find a way to take the armor off him. Whatever is contained within is not human. Be prepared."

"Not human?" Harper asked. "He sounds like a boy."

"A boy who walks around in a two hundred pound suit of armor?" Snape asked. "A boy who was hit several times with the killing cures to no effect? It is not human. You will find out what it is and report back tomorrow night."

"Yes sir," Harper said.

Snape nodded and his image vanished. Harper hurried out of the dark office. He had two essays due tomorrow, as well as a suicide mission.

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Despite the late hour the Transfiguration classroom was occupied. Ed's eyes traveled over the diagrams the witch had drawn out on the chalkboard. Assorted organ systems were highlighted and he could see little notes and arrows pointing to the heart. He looked over at his own alchemic diagrams. He had to keep Al's soul stably bound while the rest of his body was being restructured.

"I believe I have a workable solution," McGonagall said. "We will use sealing charms to prevent the blood rune from fading, then the circle of steel on which the seal rests will be left whole and incorporated into the skeletal structure, while the rest of the armor to which the soul has been bound will be transformed into various living tissues."

Ed nodded. "Are you sure that will be enough contact to keep the living body integrated into the steel disk?"

Integrated. Ed was a bit impressed with himself. He'd picked up many useful words that day, but he still had a little trouble following McGonagall's words.

"As sure as I can be. I've never worked a transfiguration within these parameters before. Ideally we'd try an animal model first."

"Ed can't afford to lose anymore limbs!" Al said.

They both jumped. They had been so focused on their paper models they had forgotten that Al was still in the room.

"Maybe you could try turning my brother's automail leg into flesh and blood first?" Al suggested.

McGonagall shook her head. "Transfiguration is not a good way to deal with limb replacement. A trained healer with the right spells and potions can regenerate a limb, but making a new one and trying to graft it on has predictably bad results. If you wish your arm and leg to be regrown I can set up an appointment with St. Mungo's. It will take several weeks to regenerate and there is a long waiting period beforehand as well."

Ed's mouth hung open. "You mean you can fix this, too?" he asked in a small voice, pointing at the steel arm.

"But why didn't that man at the mansion have his regrown? Mr. Moody?" Al asked.

"Alastor is rather proud of his scars," McGonagall said, huffing slightly. "It's also rather costly. But I'm sure we can arrange something. "

"Al, can you excuse us for a few minutes?" Ed asked in his own language.

"What are you going to do, big brother?" Al asked warily.

"Nothing. Just take a walk, alright?"

Al did armor's best approximation of a scowl, turned and bowed to McGonagall. He then stomped off into the hallway.

"What do you want?" Ed asked the Headmistress when Al was out of hearing range.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"What do you want from us? What do you want for all this?" Ed demanded, raising his voice. His heart was hammering. "You know we don't have money. We're a world away from home. Your transfiguration is better than my alchemy, so what do you want?"

She looked offended. "I don't want anything, Mr. Elric."

"Bullshit! Nothing is free. Everybody wants everything. Whatever it is, take it from me, not my brother."

"Mr. Elric, I do not claim to understand your situation, or your background, but this is mine. I am a teacher. I spend my life preparing children for adulthood and helping them learn from their mistakes. I do not ask them to trade away bits of themselves for the help they need. I will not ask anything of the sort from you or your brother. I will, however require that you refrain from cursing. Which of my Gryffindors taught you that word?"

"Heard it from Moody," Ed said with a teenager's convincing honesty. "When are we going to try this?" he asked after an awkward pause.

"Saturday," McGonagall said. "It will undoubtedly take hours and I have classes the rest of the week."

Ed nodded.

"Good night Mr. Elric," she said.

Ed nodded again, and walked quickly out of McGonagall's classroom. In three days, his brother might be human again, and it didn't make any sense.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's note:** I've been getting some rather confused reviews, so just a reminder. This story is set during the Anime series, around episode 40.

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 8: Re-Al-ity**

Ed stuffed another forkful of the weird batter-coated bread into his mouth.

"French toast?" Ed asked as he chewed.

Ginny nodded.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Al chided.

Ed grunted and focused on his plate. He could feel eyes boring into him from all sides. Usually he'd just glare back. He was used to stares from soldiers. Being the youngest Alchemist in the military earned a lot of gawking. This felt different somehow, though. The people watching him were his own age. It was making him unaccountably nervous.

He and Al had spent most of their time at Hogwarts in the library designing transmutation circles to keep Al stabilized, since Ed wouldn't be able to put his hands on the armor during the transfiguration process. Harry, Hermione, and Ron had spent most of their time in the library, too, reading through books. Al had asked them what they were doing and they had responded "nothing". Ed had given them the same answer when they asked about his circles.

Ed looked over at Ginny. She was scribbling furiously on a roll of parchment as she stuffed toast into her mouth with her free hand.

"It's due in twenty-three minutes," she explained, spraying bits of toast onto the paper as she tried to talk and eat.

Al shook his head disapprovingly. Ed raised an eyebrow at him, but Al didn't tell her to keep her mouth shut. Ed planned to tease him later.

Ginny was the only one he marginally trusted at the school. She had insisted Ed and Al teach her "the elbow thing" Ed had used to take down Harper, to pay her back for helping them out the day before. Ed was sure he could have handled the goons on his own, or maybe with a little help from Al. Still, someone wanting more than what they were owed made a lot more sense than people wanting nothing. He supposed he did owe her for showing them where the Great Hall was. Ed might have starved to death looking for it on his own.

"Finally up?" Ginny called as Harry, Ron and Hermione approached the table, whipping up a whole new storm of whispers.

"No classes," Ron said. "Why rush?"

"Sure, rub it in," Ginny said.

"I wish we could attend some classes," Hermione said. "NEWTS are going to be murd-urk!"

WHAP!

Hermione was cut off by a newspaper dropping onto her head, followed by an owl.

"Paper's here," Ginny announced helpfully.

"Oh no," Hermione said, reading the headline.

_**Forty-eight killed in attack on half-blood home.**_

**_The Whithop household was attacked last night during a birthday celebration for Chirsty Whithop a half blood witch, who turned ten that day. You-know-who himself was said to be among the attackers. Several muggle neighbors were killed when they apparently heard screams from the home, and attempted to help the Whithops who had lived in the muggle neighborhood for fifteen years._**

"Just stop," Ron said. "We know how it goes from there."

Ed saw that Harry had stopped eating. Ginny was watching him too and rolled her eyes.

"We aren't working fast enough," Harry mumbled. He got up from his chair. "I'll be in the library."

As Harry marched out of the hall Ron made a face.

"We should go after him," Hermione said.

"We should get to sit down and eat at least one meal with out him doing that," Ron said.

Hermione looked offended and marched off, looking back over her shoulder at Ron every other step. When she finally made it to the door of the great hall, Ron sighed and stood up. He grabbed a hand full of the toast and a boiled egg and started after her.

"What was that all about?" asked Ed.

"They're working on their heroic angst. I honestly don't think it suits them," Ginny replied.

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Harry circled the town of Little Hangleton, and proceeded to brandish the map in front of his friends.

"We're going after the snake."

"We don't know-"Hermione said.

"But Dumbledore suspected, and he was usually right," Harry interrupted.

"Ron?" Hermione demanded, seeking support.

"I don't care either way," he replied.

"But sneaking up to his strong hold? That's asking to be captured or worse. Harry we shouldn't rush!"

Harry threw the newspaper down on the table. He started to speak, but Hermione snatched up the paper and threw it back in his face.

"Don't start that! I know people are dying, but if we don't succeed, it won't ever stop. To succeed we have to survive. This-" she said as she tapped the red circle on the map, "-is the last stop."

"We don't know where else to look," Harry said.

"We need to find R.A. B." Hermione said.

"And where do we look for him? He's not in the bloody phone book!" Harry snapped.

Ron let his forehead drop to the table with a loud thump.

"Are we boring you?" Hermione demanded.

"Yes, actually," Ron said.

"What?" Hermione demanded.

"You're arguing about the same thing. We don't have the information we need. Not everything is in the school library you know. We need the Order's help."

"So you just want to give up?" Harry demanded.

"Did I say that? No. I want to ask McGonagall for help. She offered."

"This is our responsibility," Harry said.

"She'll figure out what we're doing. The information will leak," Hermione argued.

"Well unless R.A.B. is the author of the new best selling book, **_Voldemort's Horcruxes and Where to Find Them,_** I doubt anything will be given away," Ron said.

The other two frowned and then nodded.

"I suppose that's the best thing to do for now," Hermione said.

Ron lifted his head from the table and rested it on his arm. "You know we're in pretty bad shape if I'm the voice of reason."

The other's laughed at his joke, but they were nodding sadly too.

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Ed, Al and Ginny climbed the stairs toward Gryffindor tower. Ginny had come back from potions to find Ed still at a table, ingesting French toast, with his brother watching in horrified awe. Al claimed Ed had consumed forty-seven pieces, though Ed deigned this.

"Aren't you missing class?" Al asked the witch.

She shrugged. "It's only history. The ghost that teaches it can't figure out the roll anyway."

"A ghost teaches it?" Al asked sounding frightened despite the fact that he was a haunted suit of armor.

Ginny just nodded.

"What were those three going on about?" Ed asked. "With the newspaper I mean."

"They're on a secret mission or some such thing," Ginny said.

"Really?" Ed asked. "Who would give them a secret mission? What are they supposed to do?"

"Kill an evil immortal wizard."

"Why would they even try?"

Ginny shrugged. "Don't let this get around, because I'm not supposed to know this, either. Voldemort made his new body out of bits of Harry, so he thinks it's his fault that Voldemort is going around killing people. I've tried to convince him he isn't responsible for what that maniac does just because he stole Harry's blood, but Harry likes feeling guilty. I mean, Voldemort took over my body once and tried to kill all the muggle-born students at Hogwarts. You don't see me guilt-ing myself to death."

"So Harry's doing all this because he feels guilty?"

"And there was some sort of prophecy going around, too. A couple of years ago Voldemort tried to get the prophecy using Harry's godfather as bait. Harry went to try to save him and the whole thing went to hell. Nobody got the prophecy and people died. I suppose Harry's trying to get his own back for that."

"So it's guilt and revenge?"

"And I have suspicions that Dumbledore, the former Headmaster of the school and leader of the good guys, may have, with his dying breath, told Harry he had to save the world."

"No pressure there," Ed muttered.

"Big brother!" Al said in a sort of plaintive tone.

Ed looked around and saw Al had gotten several dozen yards ahead of them.

"Don't pick up that cat!" Ed demanded in advance.

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Harry had spent most of the day thinking of reasons not to go to McGonagall's office, but a verbal push from Hermione and a physical push from Ron had finally sent him on his way. The gargoyle guarding her office moved aside without requiring a password. She was waiting behind her desk when he finally got to the top of the stairs.

"I need some information," Harry said.

McGonagall nodded for him to continue.

"I need to know about someone whose initials were R. A. B."

"R. A. B.?" she asked.

"We couldn't find any thing on him in the library."

"There's no reason you should, unless he was defacing books."

"What?" Harry asked.

"I suppose you found them carved somewhere in Grimmauld place?" McGonagall asked.

Harry tried not to show his confusion and simply nodded.

"Regulus Argus Black, your godfather's younger brother," McGonagall sighed. "They were very much alike."

"Except for the Death Eater bit," Harry said.

McGonagall nodded vaguely.

"How did he die?" Harry asked.

"We never did find out, though Bellatrix Lestrange did brag about having some hand in it."

"And you're certain he's dead?"

"You wouldn't have been able to inherit the Black mansion otherwise."

Harry nodded.

"Anything else?" she asked.

He was about to say no when he saw the parchments on her desk. There were strange patterns and inscribed circles all over them.

"What are those?" he asked.

"They are Mr. Elric's, and not your concern," McGonagall said.

Harry left, and found Ron and Hermione in the Gryffindor common room. After checking the Marauder's map to make sure they were alone, he told them what he'd learned.

"So what are we going to do? Catch Lestrange and feed her truth serum?" Ron asked.

"That will end well," Hermione grumbled.

"Maybe the locket is still at Grimmauld somewhere," said Ron.

"You just want your mum to cook for you," Harry accused with a smile. "Besides we threw out nearly everything in that house. If it was there it's probably in some curse proof sack in a land fill."

"It could have gone in Fred and Georges' pockets," Ron said. "Half the stuff we were supposed to put in the bin went with them instead."

"If they haven't seen it, I still think our best bet is going after the snake," Harry said.

"Let's keep that in the suggestion box for now," Ron said.

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The courtyard was empty, as it was only seven am on Saturday morning, and even the Quidditch team wasn't that obsessed. The three figures that marched slowly across the thin layer of snow had it all to themselves.

"Ready?" Ed asked.

"One second," Ginny said.

She hung her coat on one of Al's shoulder spikes, and then turned to face Ed.

"He's not a coat rack!" Ed declared.

"I don't mind brother!" Al said quickly.

"Fine," Ed growled.

Ginny stepped back and managed a half decent block as Ed swung at her with his flesh and blood hand, but she didn't even notice his foot coming in until it got her in the stomach and she landed on the ground with a grunt. She'd been learning to fight from the Elric brother's for the last couple of days, but she didn't think she was showing much improvement.

"Brother!" Al scolded. "You're hitting too hard!"

"Teacher hit us very harder," Ed said.

"Way harder or much harder," Ginny corrected as she got to her feet. "Very is more for when you talk about uh…things that don't end in 'er'. You say…very hard, very pretty, or very ugly."

Ed lunged at her again and she stumbled out of the way. "You are **very** slow," Ed said with a bit of a mean grin as he swept her feet out of under her.

She scraped her hands on the cobbles as she caught herself and hissed in pain. Still on the ground she kicked out and caught Ed in the hip.

"Ow!" he shouted stumbling.

"Got ya!" she declared.

"That was just because I was waiting for you to get up!" Ed complained.

"Brother!" Al chided.

Ginny and Ed sparred for another half an hour, and then Ed and Al went for a few rounds. Ed lost hands down.

"Your little brother always wins doesn't he?" Ginny asked smirking.

"Yes," said Al.

"We'll see how it goes tomorrow Al," Ed said with an evil grin. "Tomorrow you'll actually feel it!"

"What?" Ginny asked. "Are you going to fight without your armor on?"

"Yes," Al said, and then he changed his answer to "Maybe."

"How come you always wear that anyway?" Ginny asked.

"Your brother didn't tell you?" Al asked.

Ginny shrugged. "Why would I ask him if you're around?"

"He doesn't want to talk about it!" Ed said.

"I don't mind," Al said. "I can't take the armor off, but Professor McGonagall thinks maybe she can help me with it. We're going to try tonight."

"Oh," Ginny said. "Is it cursed? My dad had a cursed Santa hat from Fred and George for Christmas once. He couldn't take it off for a month. Mum boxed their ears just about every time she saw it."

"What's a Christmas?" Ed asked. "And what's a Santa?"

He didn't care all that much, but he didn't want Al running his mouth off around strangers, even semi-trust worthy ones.

"Christmas is a muggle holiday, celebrating the birth of the son of God, and Santa is a fat man in a red suit who goes around the world in a sleigh drawn by flying reindeer, and gives you presents if you're good."

"This world is so weird," Ed muttered.

Ginny went back to the girl's dorm to do homework, and Ed and Al took their notes to the library, for a final review. Al felt certain that his non-existent stomach was churning.

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There were torches burning. Ed suddenly wished for electric lights. The eerie flickering light reminded him too strongly of the basement of their house in Resembul, where things had gone so wrong. He swallowed and didn't mention it. Al was looking nervous enough as he helped Ed lay out his notes on the floor. They'd gone over the transmutation circle a thousand times at least. The calculations were perfect. They were just as perfect as last time.

"Big brother?"

"Yeah Al?"

"I wrote something," Al said. "It's in the backpack Mrs. Weasley gave us. If something goes wrong…"

"Nothing's going to go wrong," Ed said.

"Big brother. Listen to me. I know something might go wrong. I know we're trying our best, but if it does…if I get lost, don't trade anything else to the Gate. Read the letter alright?"

"Yeah, sure," Ed said.

"Promise," Al demanded, grabbing Ed's flesh and blood hand, squeezing it painfully. "Promise!" Al demanded.

"I promise," Ed said. _I promise this will work. I promise the same thing I've always promised. You'll get your body back Al._

Al let go, but he rightfully didn't seem convinced.

The door of the infirmary creaked open and McGonagall stepped through with Madam Pomfrey in tow.

"Is everything on schedule?" McGonagall asked.

Her business like manner took some of the tension out of the room. She had several rolls of parchment under her arm and she laid them out on a table with cool efficiency. As she worked Ed clapped his hands, and used Alchemy to etch the transmutation circle into the floor. They couldn't afford to have it smudge.

"I believe an equal mass transfiguration will be the most stable," McGonagall said as she inspected the circles.

"What do you mean?" Ed asked.

"I'm going to use only about half of the steel that makes up your brother's body to make his new body. There will be leftover bits of steel, instead of a two-hundred-pound boy."

"That makes more sense than most of the other things you've tried to explain to me," Ed said.

Still he was a little unnerved by this last minute detail she had not mentioned before. They had managed to come to a tentative understanding of who would be doing what during the planned procedure, but the theory behind Alchemy and the theory of magic were so different they were doing the communicative equivalent of pointing and waving each other out of the way.

"I did not want you to worry if a few pieces were not included in the final…product."

Ed nodded. "So…should we start now?"

McGonagall nodded. She waved Al forward and he stepped into the circle.

"Arms out to the sides," McGonagall commanded him.

Al obeyed. The witch flicked her wand and a glowing seam appeared. The armor peeled open, exposing the inside of Al's steel chest.

"Ahhhhhhh!" Al called in distress.

"Al?" Ed asked, lunging forward.

"I'm…fine. This is just….really disturbing. I'll be quiet now."

Ed nodded, and stepped back, waving for McGonagall to proceed. She waved her wand again, chanting as light spilled out of it. The layers of light settled on top of the blood seal.

"How are you doing, Al?" Ed asked.

"Still alright. It doesn't feel…like it did when Lust was scratching at it. It's still weird."

McGonagall stepped back.

"Is it done?" Ed asked.

"Yes. Nothing should be able to disturb the seal now, except for the total destruction of the steel circle it is resting on."

When the light faded, Ed reached in and ran his flesh and blood hand over the seal. He couldn't feel the dried blood. With shaking caution he used his nail to scratch at the very edge of the seal. No blood came loose. He stepped back.

"Ready?" McGonagall asked.

"Yeah," Ed said.

"Yes ma'am," Al said.

Ed knelt down and placed his hands on the transmutation circle on the floor. It began to glow, and the seal inside the armor flared with red light.

"Do it," Ed said.

McGonagall raised her wand. Al started melting. The steel became a glowing, flowing blue liquid, sinking in on itself as the hollow filled itself in. Ed could still see the blood seal, the only solid thing in a waving flowing mass. His blood glowed. He wanted to yell at Al to answer him, though he could still feel him there through the alchemy circle that was holding everything in place. Strands of glowing material floated out and away from the bright, human-shaped mass in the center of the circle. Ed stared into the light. Below the blood seal he saw shadows condensing into a rib cage and behind that, glowing brighter by the second, was a translucent, beating heart.

The glow became painfully bright and Ed looked up toward his brother's head. A face was forming out of the glowing mass. Ed's eyes were drawn to motion. Fingers had formed and were twitching. Legs kicked. Feet flexed. The light grew brighter, shining through Ed's eyelids and forcing him to turn his head away. Suddenly it was dark. Ed turned back, blinking.

Sitting slumped in the center of the circle was a boy. Around him the strands and lumps of unused steel lost their glow and dropped to the stone floor in an unexpectedly loud percussion. The boy in the circle blinked and lay back on the floor, as if sitting up took too much effort. Madam Pomfrey rushed forward. Ed heard a gasp behind him and turned. McGonagall was swaying. He jumped to his feet. She fell against him, an old lady with paper skin and bird's bones. He had trouble believing some one that fragile could pull off something so momentous.

"If you could help me find a chair, Mr. Elric?" she asked.

He helped her stagger to the nearest hospital bed, looking over his shoulder every other step. Al's chest moved.

_He's breathing. He's breathing. _

The second McGonagall hit the mattress, Ed was running back to the circle.

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Al lay on the stone floor, looking up at the ceiling. He blinked. He hadn't blinked in five years. He inhaled, filling his lungs until it felt like he was choking on air. There was a strange, stiff feeling on the left side of his chest. He put his hand to it. He could just barely feel the circular indentation in his rib cage where his seal now rested.

"Al?" his brother asked.

"Ed."

"Can you move?"

Al nodded and climbed to his feet. He and his brother were of nearly equal height. Al put his hand on Ed's shoulder and shook him, laughing as he felt his brother push back against him. He laughed harder as Ed hugged him, crushing all the air out of his lungs. He started to get dizzy, but he didn't let go. Ed finally let up when he realized Al was gasping.

"You look…" Ed started to say.

"What?" Al asked.

"You look exactly the same. You're still ten."

Al looked down at himself. He was rather short. He looked over at McGonagall.

"I was working towards the image of the boy I saw within the armor. I suppose since it happened when you were ten, your afterimage remained the same. If you wish, you can age at the normal rate, or we can give you some potions that will cause you to grow at an accelerated rate. In a few weeks your biological age will match your chronological age. If you decide to take the potions, it will also give me an opportunity to make certain you are developing normally, and not sprouting extra limbs or some such thing."

"I'll take the potion," Al said smiling. "It's weird not being several feet taller than Ed."

Ed punched him in the arm. It hurt. Al laughed anyway.

"Might I suggest we find your brother some clothing?" Madam Pomfrey asked. "It wouldn't do for him to catch a chill."

Al laughed some more.

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Harper crept into the dusty office again, struggling to catch his breath.

"Snape!" he called into the mirror.

"What have you learned?" Snape demanded as he appeared in the glass.

"The armor never had anything in it. It was haunted by the short boy's dead brother. McGonagall transfigured the armor into a boy. He looks about ten. They're going to give him aging potions."

"The armor is now a boy? They transfigured a haunted object into a living object? The human form is still sentient?"

"I guess. He was talking the same. I only know what I heard through the door."

"You have a new assignment. You are to get that boy, and his brother if possible, outside of the school's wards, where we can capture them."

"But I'll be found out for sure! I'll be expelled!"

"Mr. Harper. That is the least of your problems at the moment."

"Yes, sir."


	9. Chapter 9

**Invert **

**By Marz**

**Chapter 9: Burns**

Harry was rather suspicious when Hermione insisted they go past the hospital wing on their way to Sunday breakfast. She had claimed she had a question for the hospital Matron, but as they approached the doors, Harry became aware of the set up.

"Mr. Potter! Get in here, now!" Pomfrey demanded, practically diving out the door to get him.

Hermione shoved him into the arms of the school nurse. There was no escape. He was pulled inside. The nurse waved her wand and doors locked themselves.

"I can't believe this!" Harry muttered, mostly to himself.

"Don't be so childish," the nurse scolded, overhearing. "She's concerned for you, and rightly so. Wait here," Pomfrey ordered, leaving Harry by one of the beds as she went into her office.

He saw another door at the end of the room, and hurried toward it. There were a few private rooms at the back of the hospital wing, maybe if he hid there she'd think he'd left and take the locks off the door. It wasn't a good plan, but he didn't have much to work with. He knocked on the nearest door.

"Come in!" called a cheerful and somewhat familiar voice.

Harry opened the door and stopped short as he saw Ed and another short light haired boy sitting on the floor. It hit him then that the other boy must be Al, Ed's little brother. He supposed McGonagall's transfiguration worked.

"How are you?" Harry asked, lurking in the doorway.

"Great!" Al shouted. "Come in! We're eating!"

Harry didn't need more encouragement. He closed the door behind him. Al was sitting cross-legged on the floor next to Ed. Al was wearing hospital pajamas but other than that, he looked pretty much the same as the ghost Harry had seen in the armor.

"So everything went…alright?" Harry asked.

Ed frowned. "So far."

"This is great!" Al declared, pouring himself more pumpkin juice from a pitcher that magically refilled itself. He took a huge gulp of juice and strangled. Ed slapped him on the back as he coughed.

"He hasn't…got the hang of chewing and swallowing yet. He's already choked six times," Ed said, glaring at the food as if it had said something rude.

"I haven't eaten in five years," Al complained. "I'll get used to it."

Ed didn't look convinced.

Harry started again. "But everything…"

"It's fine," Ed said.

Al choked on a muffin.

"So, are you planning to work on that cylinder thing now?" Harry asked.

Ed nodded. "It's so complex. Unless we find the…instruction manual it could take years to figure out how to control and activate it, and that's assuming we can get near it for a significant length of time. McGonagall said the Order couldn't spare anyone to guard us while we took another look at it."

Harry shook his head. McGonagall wouldn't let them go until she was sure it was safe, and that probably wouldn't be until the war was over. He was about to say something to that effect when the door burst open and Madam Pomfrey stormed in.

"Mr. Potter, are you hiding in here?" Madam Pomfrey demanded.

"Uh….no?" Harry said.

She marched over, grabbed his arm, and dragged him back into the hospital proper.

"Did you take any of potions they gave you at St. Mungo's?" she asked.

"I took the pain killer for a while," he said.

"How long?" she asked.

"Until the burns stopped oozing."

She glared at him. "Sit," she ordered, pointing at a bed.

Harry sat.

"Drink," she ordered, putting a vial into his hand.

It was filled with blue liquid with tiny sliver blobs floating in it.

"Drink!" she repeated. "And don't even think about dumping it on the floor. It costs more then that racing broom you're so proud of."

"Give it to someone else then," Harry said.

"I know quiet a few force feeding spells Mr. Potter. Unless you have some compelling reason you can not take that medicine you will, right now."

Harry waved his hand at his scarred side. "I'll fix this when I'm done. Why bother wasting potions if it's just going to get messed up again?"

"It?" Madame Pomfrey asked. "If you are referring to yourself as 'it' I think perhaps I will have to recommend some physiological stabilizers as well."

Harry frowned.

"Drink!"

Harry glared, took the top off the vial, and drank the strange blue potion it contained. His arm, side, and scalp tingled. His head itched terribly, and he pulled off his hat. His skin glowed a strange gold color for a moment. When the light faded his burn scars looked almost exactly the same.

"All of that was curse scaring?" Pomfrey said, mostly to herself. "Well at least your hair came back."

Harry reached up and ran his hand over his scalp. His hair had come back, just as messy as it had been. He stood up and walked to the window, squinting at his reflection. His hair, once black, was now streaked white at the temples. He looked at his hands again. His fingernails had grown about an inch as well.

"A few hundred galleons worth of hair potions," he muttered to himself as he walked out.

He didn't realize Ed had been watching him.

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Ed stretched toward the shelf. He could see the book, titled _Bending The Fabric of Reality_, just a few inches beyond his reach. Their magic and his alchemy didn't overlap in any practical way, but he was hoping there would be some unifying underlying theory, regarding transportation, if not transmutation. Even if it didn't it would give him something to read while he baby-sat Al. Madam Pomfrey had promised to sit with him while Ed was in the library. He still didn't want to be gone for very long. He considered dragging a chair over, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

"Allow me," rumbled a voice from very near.

Ed jumped as a very fat man reached past him and took the book down. Instead of handing it to him, he started paging through it.

"Trying to go somewhere?" the fat man asked.

"It's a subject of interest," Ed replied.

"Are you much interested in potions?" asked the fat man. "I teach the course here. I'm Professor Slughorn by the way."

"Good for you," Ed said.

The fat professor frowned. "Am I to understand you killed Greyback?" he asked.

"Yeah," Ed said, wondering how such a large person could have snuck up on him. He also wondered where everyone else in the library had gone.

"And you didn't use magic? Only the combat skills I've heard so much about?"

"I don't know what you've heard," Ed said coldly.

"There's no need to act so nervous. I just came to give you a bit of advice."

"Really?"

"Yes. I'm simply saying it may not be wise to come out so obviously opposed to the Dark Lord. Greyback was very valued in his organization."

"You're recruiting for him?" Ed asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, no, no!" the fat man said. "But perhaps you have not been adequately advised about the dangers of being associated with Mr. Potter."

Ed didn't know he was associated with Mr. Potter in the first place.

"People seem to want to kill him. I have similar problems back home," Ed said.

"And where is home?"

"Armetris."

"Is that on the continent?"

"It's on a continent."

"You know Mr. Potter is unlikely to win."

"Win what? I don't care," Ed pointed out.

"Do you think it's wise to get involved at all, considering your brother's vulnerable state?"

Ed clapped his hands together and in the next instant the fat man had a blade pressed to his neck.

"That sounded like a threat. Was that a threat?" Ed asked through clenched teeth.

"-no-"

"I thought not."

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Ed was sitting by the window, lost in thought. He seemed upset since he'd come back from the library. Al watched him, feeling almost giddy as he blinked and took long breaths through his nose. Every sensation was new and he felt almost washed away by it.

"Let's go for a walk!" Al shouted.

Ed jumped and stumbled out of his chair. "I don't know if that's such a good idea. It's only been eighteen hours. Something could go wrong."

"I feel fine! I can feel everything. The floor is cold. This blanket is scratchy. It smells like a hospital in here. Let's just walk around this floor."

"I don't know if it's safe," Ed said, looking suspiciously at the door. "The students will be out there."

"Why would they want to hurt us? Big brother…did something happen?"

Ed walked away from the window and sat on the edge of Al's bed. He leaned in and spoke in a low voice.

"One of the teachers said something…implied that if we tried to help Harry and his friends…something bad would happen. Why does everyone think we have something to do with them?"

"One of their teachers is going to hurt them? We have to warn them!"

"I will, but…we need to be careful. Before, it seemed like we could stay out of the way of…whatever is going on here. This school may have the information we need, but it isn't safe. Nothing is safe, Al. Don't forget that. That's how it always is."

"Calm down, brother."

"I knew there'd be a catch. There's always a catch. You've got your body back, but now any minute someone can come along and stab you in the back. We probably won't make it to the end of the month."

"Big brother, it isn't that bad."

"We should leave as soon as we know you're alright. But how will we know for sure? The potion they gave you is supposed to be done in a week…so where should we go? Both groups are watching the cylinder, and we don't even know if we can find it with the "spell" they put on it."

"Brother, you know there's nowhere else to go. At least not now, so let's calm down, and go for a walk."

Ed forced a smile. "You've got a one-track mind."

Al smiled.

"Maybe later," Ed said.

Al frowned.

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Al looked over at the chair and saw his brother was asleep, for once not snoring. Al looked out the window. The sun had set hours ago, and everything was quiet. He smiled and crawled out of bed. With his brother hovering over him, Al hadn't been able to do half the things he remembered from when he was last flesh and blood. He pulled on his clothes and took some chalk, just in case.

The hallway was empty and dark, but Al had no problem just feeling his way along the wall; grainy stone, carved wooded picture frames, cloth tapestries. He found the railing and moved down the steps, humming quietly as he went. He wandered through the halls running his hands over everything in reach. He wanted to get outside. He'd seen it was snowing from the windows. He wanted to feel the snapping crisp cold in the air, and maybe even make a snow angle or two. He heard soft steps and then felt a cat rubbed against his leg. He leaned down to pet it.

"Hello Mrs. Norris," Al said softly. "Do you remember me?"

The cat purred and Al scooped it up so he could feel the rumble against his chest. He kept petting it and it kept purring. He wandered, lost but unconcerned. The cat got bored and leapt away from him, disappearing into the dark. Al laughed for no other reason then there was now a cold spot where the cat had been. He found another window and looked out. The silver moon was sinking. He'd been gone a long time. He pressed his face to the glass: cold, smooth, and flat

"Shouldn't you be in the Hospital Wing?" a young male voice asked.

Al turned toward the sound and a light flashed in his face. Everything felt wonderful and suddenly foggy.

"Lets go outside," the voice suggested.

"Yes," Al agreed. "I was going outside but I couldn't find the way. It's snowing."

"Yeah, alright. Come on."

A hand closed around his wrist and pulled him through the hall. Al started humming again. They found the door out very quickly. Al smiled and caught snowflakes with his free hand.

"Do you have any weapons on you?" the voice asked.

Al looked over at him. In the moonlight, he now recognized him. It was the boy who Ed had picked a fight with, Harper. Al thought perhaps he should be worried about this, but he couldn't quite remember how to be worried at that moment.

"Do you have any weapons?" Harper repeated.

"I have chalk in my pocket," Al said cheerfully.

"That's not what I asked," Harper growled.

"Lets have a snowball fight!" Al suggested.

"Were you this dumb before I cursed you?" Harper growled.

"I'm not dumb," Al said. "I can talk just fine. I have a mouth and teeth and vocal cords again."

"Just shut up."

Al nodded and started humming.

"Stop humming."

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Harry shifted on the couch and ran his hand through his hair. He was rather glad to have it back. He flexed his hands. The burn scared skin still felt a bit tight. He looked back at the books and maps he had laid out on the table. They were charmed to look blank to anyone else who looked at them. They were doing about as much good for Harry. There was no flash of inspiration. Little Hangleton was the only place he knew to look.

"Al's in trouble," Ginny said, from right behind Harry.

He started and then jumped to his feet. Ginny had the Marauder's map in her hands. She must have borrowed it off of Hermione.

"He's walking into the Forbidden Forest with Harper. That can hardly be his idea," she informed him as she ran for the door.

Harry cast a Patronous and sent it to wake McGonagall. The glowing stag took off through one wall as Harry and Ginny sprinted through the portrait. He fell in step behind her as they ducked down one of the map's hidden tunnels that lead outside a little faster then the main stairs. As they came out of the castle Harry cast repelling charms on his and Ginny's shoes. They sprinted across the top of the powdery snow. They found Harper's tracks quickly enough. Their targets were already in the forest and out of the map's range. Ginny sent a Patronus back towards Hargrid's hut, but neither suggested waiting for backup.

The trees stole all the light, and immediately the creak of the snow weighted branches and the sound of their own breathing surrounded them. Without a word Ginny grabbed Harry's hand and led them on by feeling the tracks left in the snow. They started to hear muffled voices.

"Let's climb a tree."

"Stop talking!"

They sprinted forward. Harry nearly collided with a tree but stumbled around it at the last second. They were nearly upon them when someone else cast a lumos charm, filling the forest with eerie blue light. Three Death Eaters were standing in front of Harper and Alphonse Elric. Al was looking around with a stupid expression, probably under the imperious curse. The Death Eaters immediately noticed Ginny and Harry charging, so they made no attempt to hide.

"Stupefy!" Harry called, blasting the Death Eater in the center of the group.

Ginny hit the one on the left with a silent freezing charm, but the third dodged, firing off a blasting hex the blinded Harry with snow even though it missed him by ten feet.

"Al, go back to the castle," Ginny shouted.

"No," Harper said. "Go deeper into the forest!"

Al obeyed Harper.

"Accio Al," Harry called, snapping up his wand.

The boy came sailing back, landing in the snow at his feet. Al got up and tried to run into the forest again. Harry didn't know Al all that well, but he thought there might be one way to get through him.

"Al," Harry called. "They're going to use you as bait to kill your big brother!"

The slack expression vanished from Al's face, and was replaced by a less then impressive, but very sincere snarl. They both ducked as Harper sent a blasting hex at them. Ginny was holding off the other one all right, but the two they had taken down first were starting to twitch. Harry hit Harper with silent stunning curse, and turned to see Ginny had taken down her opponent as well. He was going to hit the downed goons with another round of stunning curses when something very large started trudging their way out of the deep dark of the forest.

"Run?" Harry asked Ginny.

She nodded and took off. Harry followed, dragging Al with him. They started sinking into the snow as the charms wore off their feet. Whatever the large thing was, it was gaining. They heard the Death Eaters they'd left behind scream. They saw the open hill leading up to the school just ahead of them through a few more rows of trees. Harry was starting to feel hopeful until a vine of Devil's Snare reached up out of the snow and caught his ankle. He fell and took Al with him. Ginny skidded to a stop. Al tried to help Harry up, but the vines started to wrap around him too.

"Lumos Solem!" Ginny called aiming her wand.

The vines hissed and let go under the scorching artificial sunlight, but a huge shadowy figure was all ready standing over them. Harry looked up at it as Al tugged on his arm in panic. It was a rather familiar huge shadowed figure. Harry looked over at Ginny. She grinned at him and laughed.

"Hello Grawp!" Harry called.

A hand the size of a windshield shot out of the dark, picked Harry up in grip just short of crushing, and set him on his feet.

"LO HARRY. GRAWP SEE EN-MY. GRAWP GUARD SCHOOL. HARRY GOOD? BOY GOOD? GINNY GOOD?"

"We're fine!" Harry called.

"Thank you Grawp!" Ginny called.

"GOOD. GRAWP GUARD," the huge figure said, turning around and wandering deeper into the forest.

"Who was that?" Al asked in a small voice.

"That was Hagrid's little brother," said Ginny.

"And Ed thinks he has it bad."

"Speaking of your brother," Ginny said.

The boys looked where she was pointing and saw a small figure charging toward the forest, more then a bit bogged down by the waist deep snow. They hurried to meet him. Ed grabbed Al's shoulders and started yelling at him, very loudly, in their own language. Ginny grabbed Ed's shoulder and Harry got Al's. They started to propel them back toward the castle as the old brother proceeded to tell the younger one off.

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Harry flipped through the atlas again, but still found no mention of Evil objects buried here. They'd spent all morning in the library while Hermione searched for an alternate plan. So far she'd had no luck.

His eyes drifted to the window. The Aurors had come the night before; to collect the three Death Eaters Grawp had finished off in the forest. Harper's body wasn't found, but he hadn't come back to the school.

"I've been thinking," Hermione announced.

"Uh-oh," Ron said, and got slapped on the arm for it.

"As I was saying," Hermione started again. "I've been thinking that it might not be a bad idea to make a record of what we're doing. Even if we aren't going to tell McGonagall, we could leave something for her to find if we don't…make it back."

"Cheerful," Ron said.

"You want us to leave a note or something?" Harry asked.

"I was thinking…maybe a Pensieve would be better," she said.

"Because those never fall into the wrong hands," Harry said snidely.

"We could put a concealing charm on it, that would expire if…we did."

"Might work," Ron allowed.

"It'll bite us in the butt," Harry said.

They did it anyway.

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Ed had been keeping an eye on them: Harry, Ron, and Hermione. He didn't really consider it spying. Not really. It's just that after Harry had rescued Al, he hadn't mentioned it again. First Harry and his group help Al find him, and then he leads them right to a cure for Al, and then he saves Al's life and he acts like its nothing. It was driving Ed more then a little crazy.

(Ginny had insisted Al was now forever in her debt and would have to buy her nice things for Christmas, so Ed wasn't much worried about her. She was sitting with Al at that moment actually. Ed was fairly certain she would demand his eternal soul in return.)

He had followed Harry, Hermione, and Ron from the library into a run down section of the castle. Ed disguised himself by transmuting a sheet he'd taken from the hospital so it bore a stone like pattern, and wrapping it around himself. It wasn't much, but it would probably fool a quick glance. He had some trouble tracking them. For a while they had turned invisible, and Ed had been forced to track the sound of their footsteps. They stopped in a stairwell that was marked off with parchment signs warning of collapse. Harry carried a cauldron with him. At first Ed thought they were going to brew one of the "potions" everyone in this crazy place was always going on about.

"Isn't it supposed to be stone," Ron asked, looking at the cauldron as Harry set it on the steps.

"No," Hermione said. "It's the spells on it that matter, not the material."

"Can we just do this?" Harry asked. "The sooner we hide it, the less likely Ginny will find it."

"Some of us aren't in rush to pour our brains into a bucket," Ron said.

After a few more minutes of squabbling and wand waving, things really got strange. Harry put the tip of his wand to his temple and pushed. He pulled his wand away a moment later, with a long shiny strand of something hanging from the end. He dropped it in the cauldron. The others copied him. For a few minutes Ed was very convinced that they were removing some sort of glowing parasitic worm from their heads, and in panic worried that he and Al were infected too.

"I think that's everything," Harry said, rubbing his head with his palm.

"I guess," Hermione said. "Now we just have to hide it with the spell."

"Here?" Ron asked. "What if rocks or spiders fall in it or something?"

"That won't matter," Hermione assured him.

"I don't want spiders swimming around in my memories," Ron said.

"Fine!" Harry grumbled. "We'll put a lid on it alright?"

"Alright."

They mumbled and chanted for a few minutes and strange gold and blue lights floated up the steps around Ed. He was worried they'd be bright enough to give away his crappy disguise. They never looked towards him though. They just kept on chanting until all the light was gone. Then they just stood up and continued on down the steps, as if nothing had happened.

As soon as they were gone, Ed crept down and opened the cauldron. He supposed the "spell" that hid it either hadn't worked, or he had been close enough to be included in it. The cauldron was filled with a shiny silver liquid that swirled and flashed with strange light, rather then brain worms. He leaned closer. He could almost make out an image in it. He squinted and turned his head. His bangs brushed the surface of the liquid. Suddenly he was falling in headfirst. The only real consolation was that he didn't actually get wet. He got his feet under himself before he landed in the middle of a crater-pocked street. The color of everything was washed out and strange.

Three figures appeared amid the rubble. Ed was fairly certain he recognized their outlines. Ed he wasn't exactly shocked to see Harry, Hermione, and Ron walking towards him. Their skin and hair was oddly off color, as if it had been washed out. They were carrying heavy backpacks and the bags clinked and clanked with whatever they contained. The three looked around nervously, eyes darting and heads bobbling on their necks. He waved at them but they didn't seem to see him. They scurried toward a dilapidated warehouse, wincing every time they kicked a rock or scuffed a shoe. Their attempt at covert was painful to watch. Ed followed. The three stopped for a moment to inspect the writing on a crumbling doorway. It led into a factory, which was decrepit and crumbling, but Ed saw no sign of vermin, not even spider webs. The trio had stopped in the entranceway of a large room, looking nervously around. They had taken amulets from their packs, and the charms and stones they bore all glowed a disturbing red.

"Cursed floor?" the pale Harry asked.

"No floor," Hermione said.

Ron tossed a pebble, which dropped right through the concrete.

"Brooms?" Ron asked after a few minutes of apprehensive staring.

"Wait," Harry said.

He took a shiny gold ball from his pack. It sprouted wings and darted out over the false floor. It got halfway across before freezing up, and dropping just like the pebble. Ed didn't see why they wanted to cross the floor. The wall on the other side of the room looked solid.

"So…no brooms," Ron concluded.

"What do you think is down there?" Harry asked.

Hermione pulled a tiny wire cage from her pack, and Ed saw a little white mouse inside it. They tied the mouse to the string and lowered it through the floor. The string jerked once. Harry pulled it back up. Smoke rose from the tiny twitching creature. Its flesh seemed to be evaporating.

"Right," Ron muttered. "Don't fall in, then."

Ed watched as the pale trio prodded the floor with conjured sticks until they found a solid path along the northern wall. They inched along it on their toes, bodies pressed to the wall. From the way they walked the path couldn't have been more the six inches wide. When the three had crossed they waved their wands in the air. Suddenly another corridor appeared in the wall. Through it, Ed could see a tinny silver cup sitting on a dais. _This is an obvious trap_, Ed thought.

"This is a trap," Harry said.

The others nodded.

"Accio cup!" Ron said, waving his wand.

Nothing happened.

"I've got a really bad feeling about trying to walk over there and pick that up," the pale Harry said.

The others nodded.

"We can make a pole, with a hook on the end," Hermione suggested.

They took junk from their packs and threw it in a pile. Hermione waved her wand over it, and it melted and reformed into a very long pole, with a hook. They nearly dropped it backwards into the false floor, and there was a bit of confusion about who was holding which part of it, and who should be standing where, and who was on who's foot, and who was just in the way. Finally the pale version of Harry ended up holding it by himself while the others made sure he didn't fall backwards through the floor.

Harry, with much cursing and muttering, managed to hook the cup. He and his friends stood breathless as he lifted it up off the dais, but nothing happened. They sighed and Harry pulled in the pole. It was halfway to them when it happened.

It was fire. Ed's brain told him that much, but he knew there was something wrong with it. It was fire that didn't give off any light. He watched, stunned as it poured out of the tiny cup and swept up along the pole towards Harry, who couldn't seem to drop it fast enough. It spread up his arm and down the side of his coat over his right leg. There was a dull thump as Hermione threw a spell at him that seemed to push the fire off of Harry, but a moment later it leapt back on. Hermione tried another spell and another and another, a continuous stream of colored lights washed over the cursed fire. None of it helped.

Ron charged past his burning friend into the room and aimed his wand at the cup, which was still belching out the unholy fire.

"Reducto!" he shouted, but nothing happened.

Harry's hair had caught fire, and he stumbled back, tipping over the floor that wasn't there. Hermione caught his coat and the fire leapt onto her clothes. Eyes bulging with terror, Ron stomped down on the cup, cracking it in half. Fire rushed up his leg, but it was a normal orange and yellow blaze. The stream of dark fire sputtered out. Ron stomped on the cup again, as he slapped the flames off his clothes. Ron ran back to his friends. Harry was slumped on the narrow ledge, smoke rising from him. His skin was cracked and oozing, and in places it seemed his clothes had melted into his skin. Hermione had thrown off her burned coat, and knelt, holding Harry upright.

"Check the cup," Ron said to her.

"We need to get him to the hospital," Hermione objected.

"Check it first. If it's still got HIS soul in it then this was for nothing."

Ron took over holding the burned semi-conscience Harry upright as Hermione checked over the broken cup.

"It was a Horcrux, but not anymore," she concluded.

Ron nodded.

Ed was wondering what a Horcrux was when the scenery changed. The factory melted away and suddenly he was standing in the dark on a cliff by the ocean. He was next to Harry and a very old man with a long white beard.

Things only got stranger from there.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's note:** I'm attempting to write some thoughtfulness in between the explosions. Tell me if it's working out.

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 10 Debt**

Ed sat in the hospital wing, keeping an eye on Al as he went through a short work out to make sure all his muscles and bones were working together properly. He was passing every test the witch nurse could come up with. The growth acceleration potions he'd been given seemed to be working as well. Al had grown at least three inches taller in the last few days. Al laughed as he practiced a spinning kick. He didn't seem at all jumpy despite the attempted kidnapping the previous day. He was just happy carefree Al, exactly how Ed imagined he'd be when they finally got his body back. But they hadn't gotten his body back; it had just been handed to him. Their quest, running across the country, the suffering and death, all of it seemed so pointless now.

Ed knew he should be happy. He could turn in his watch and get away from the military. He didn't need them any more.

But they needed him. The military was going to invade Leore to put down a rebellion he was in part responsible for. People he knew on both sides of the fight would be in danger. It wasn't right to just forget about them, now that he had what he wanted. He knew that much.

Ed's mind went wandering over the strange things he'd seen in the bowl that morning; a giant snake and an evil book, a ring that had burned up the old wizard's arm, a cup that spewed fire, and a locket guarded by zombies that wasn't what they thought it was. If it had been real, Harry, Hermione, and Ron were on a mission just as important as his own. Worse, they were cleaning up someone else's mess. They hadn't sinned against nature like he and Al had when they tried to resurrect their mother. Some prophesy said Harry had to save the world and he was going to give it a shot. His friends were going to risk their lives to help him. And why were they doing it? Ed didn't see a reason.

Ed didn't know how some people could be so stupid.

_It's probably the same kind of stupid that led them to help Al in the first place._

They were people who couldn't say "no" to someone who needed their help.

_Glad I'm not like that._

Ed thought of the traps and creatures the trio had fought their way past. His transmutation skills would have been more then enough to reach those objects, the Horcruxes, and destroy them. And he wouldn't have spent nearly so much time stumbling around in an attempt to be sneaky. He didn't know what he'd do about the zombie creatures, but he probably could have deconstructed the giant snake. Maybe.

From what he saw in the bowl, they had destroyed three of the Horcruxes and had three to go. Next on their list was an enemy strong hold, apparently guarded by another giant snake. They needed help.

_Why should I do anything? It's not my fight. This isn't my home. These people haven't asked for my help and they don't want it._

_But do they need it? _Asked an annoying little voice in his head, that sounded a lot like Al.

_I have to worry about my brother, _he argued with himself_. He'll do something stupid again and get hurt._

You weren't even there last time. They were. He's fine.

_I have to get Al home again._

But that he couldn't do on his own. He needed the wizards to find the cylinder. He might even need their help activating it. It would be easier to get their help if the scales were more balanced, wouldn't it?

_How can I keep up with their magic? I can't fly. I can't disappear I one place and appear in another._

They sure as hell didn't spend half their lives on trains or thumbing rides on the side of the road.

_I don't even know what the hell they're saying half the time._

Then again he didn't really need to know what people were saying to take the wands out of their hands and kick their respective asses.

"Hello kitty!" Al said, interrupting his own workout and Ed's train of thought.

Ed looked over as his brother approached another cat. He hadn't seen this one before. It looked almost like someone had tried to paint eyeglasses on it. As Al got close the cat tensed up, and gave the boy a glare that froze him in his tracks. There was a soft pop and suddenly McGonagall was standing in front of them. Ed's mouth dropped open.

"You're a cat!" Al declared excitedly.

"Occasionally," the stern woman said.

"Can I be a cat?" Al asked.

Ed slapped his hand to his forehead.

"Perhaps later," McGonagall said. "I am not certain your current body is stable enough to withstand further transfiguration. Actually I am here to see how you are fairing."

"Great!" Al declared, and demonstrated by doing a series of back flips.

"No stiffness in your joints or any other signs of reversion?" she asked.

Al shook his head. "Everything aches a bit, but I think that's from all the growing and exercising that I've been catching up on."

The witch insisted on casting a few spells on Al to make sure. When she finished Al did another few flips to show her how well he was. Ed also suspected his brother had some attention issues. Ed watched McGonagall for a few minutes. She seemed more tense then usual. He wondered if it was Harper's betrayal that had gotten to her.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Ed asked McGonagall.

Al gave Ed a very unhappy glare, but McGonagall nodded and walked out of the room with Ed. Ed didn't know if he wanted to stick his neck into this mess, but McGonagall was sort of in charge of Harry, Hermione, and Ron. She should probably know what they're up to. Maybe she could talk them out of their crazy plan.

"Do you know where Harry and his friend's are?" Ed asked.

"Mr. Potter and his entourage departed a few hours ago," she said gravely.

Ed's stomach jumped a bit.

"You know where?" he asked.

"He made no attempt to inform me, though I heard from Mrs. Weasley that they are staying the night at…the place you stayed before you came here."

Ed's jaw clenched.

"If they were to finish this…mission they were sent on…if I could help them finish faster, and get back here safe…would that make us even for Al?"

She frowned. "I told you, you are not in debt for your brother, to me or anyone. Do not involve yourself in this. This is a situation for adults to deal with. I can not keep my students out of this, but if we can get you home fast enough, you may be spared further suffering. Go sit with your brother, Mr. Elric. This is not your problem."

She hurried off down the hall. She had confirmed what Ed had thought. They didn't want his help. So why did he now feel so much more inclined to give it?

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Ed hurried across the snowy hillside. Al had told him Ginny was at Quidditch practice that afternoon. The stadium was at least as big as the parade ground at Eastern headquarters, with much better seating. He could see the team in the sky, darting around on brooms, little blurs in the air. He could hear them laughing and shouting as they threw balls back and forth. He wondered how anyone could be so nonchalant about something as miraculous as flying. After wandering around the outside of the stadium for twenty minutes he finally found the entrance.

He wasn't sure which blur was Ginny, but as he walked out on the field she apparently saw him. She dropped out of the sky. His arms tensed, but he repressed the urge to use alchemy to catch her. She was probably just showing off. He was proved right when she pulled up as the last second, floating at eye level with him.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Your brother and the other two have gone," Ed said.

Ginny frowned. "What's that to me?"

"I need to know where they'll go first."

"You're going after them?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Why?"

"I can help."

"Why would you want to?"

"What's it to you?" Ed asked, scowling.

"Your brother's worried you're going to do something stupid," Ginny said.

Ed scowled further. "I know where they're going later. I have to find them before they get there."

"Why would they tell you?"

"They didn't," Ed said. "I was…ear dropping."

"Eavesdropping," Ginny corrected. "Where are they going?"

"I don't want to say."

"Tell me what you know!" she demanded.

He shook his head. "Other people could be…eavesdropping."

She glared at him.

"You really think you can help?" she said finally.

Ed nodded.

"They'll go to Order headquarters, but you can't get there unless someone from the Order takes you there. I'm guessing you don't have permission to go."

"I don't need permission. I'm a soldier, not a student."

"Your best chance is Fred and George's shop on Diagon Alley. They'll probably stop there for supplies before they go anywhere big."

"Does the train go there?"

She shook her head. "You'll have to take the Floo from Hogsmead. But you can't go until tomorrow morning. You won't make it before the Three Broomsticks closes for the night."

Ed nodded.

"I need one more favor from you," Ed said reluctantly.

Ginny grinned evilly. "You're going to owe me."

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Ed had the backpack Mrs. Weasley had loaned him ready to go and tucked under one of the beds in the hospital wing. He was leaving as soon as the sun came up. The sky was already turning red at the edges. It would be time soon. He sat by Al's bed watching his brother sleep. He didn't want to go without saying goodbye, but he knew Al wouldn't take it well. He'd just wait until the last minute he supposed. Or he could leave a note. That would probably be better. He pulled the bag out of under the bed as quietly as possible, and started digging for paper.

"What are you planning big brother?" Al asked, suddenly awake.

"Oh…uh…nothing," Ed said.

"Why's your bag packed?"

"I have an errand to run," Ed said, trying to sound in-charge. "I'll be back in a few days. A week at most."

"What errand are you running?"

"I can't say."

"You're going after Harry!"

"No I'm not!"

"I'm coming too," Al said.

"You're staying here, Al," Ed said.

"No!"

"They need to make sure you aren't going to fall apart or explode."

"I'm not sick! I feel fine! I can help!"

"Help here," Ed said. "Keep researching the alchemy cylinder and find us a way home."

"You need me to watch your back, like always!" Al insisted, in a voice that cracked. He was speeding through his preteens.

"Al, you're flesh and blood again. Until you remember what that's like I want you to stay out of the way of people trying to kill you."

"I'm a better fighter then you!" Al insisted.

"Not right now you aren't," Ed said.

"You know I am!" Al replied shrilly.

"Fine," Ed said. "We'll fight for it. If you can still beat me, you can come. If not…you stay here until I'm done."

"You've never beaten me, brother."

"Then bring it."

They rushed down to the courtyard. It was no use breaking things and waking people up fighting inside. Ed didn't want McGonagall or the nurse to try and stop him. He brought the backpack incase he had to leave quickly. They crossed the snowy ground and squared off. Al was still in his pajamas, and he was starting to shiver badly. Ed fought the urge to make him put on one of the sweaters from the backpack.

Al lunged. His fist lashed out, clipping Ed's ear as Ed dodged, leaping backwards and snapping a foot up into Al's chest. Al half managed to block, but he overbalanced. He tumbled over backwards, but recovered with a handspring, catching Ed's right ankle as he launched another kick. Al twisted the captured leg, but Ed twisted on his planted foot, dragging Al towards him. Ed tipped sideways, driving his automail fist into his brother's side. Al grunted but didn't let go. Instead he brought up a knee and slammed it into Ed's chest. Ed lost his balance but grabbed hold of Al's belt, dragging him to the ground as well. They wrestled each other, each delivering stinging blows to the other's face between attempts to grab and pin limbs. Al got a good grip on Ed's left arm and started twisting it into a submission hold. Ed kneed him in the groin and rolled free as Al crumpled.

"You're fighting dirty!" Al complained as he wiped his tearing eyes.

"Never said I wouldn't," Ed growled.

Al charged. Ed blocked a fist aimed at his jaw and a chop that was coming at his throat. Ed kicked at his brother's knee and hopped back as Al leapt over his leg and kicked at his head. Al lashed out again with his foot, but Ed dodged. Ed's automail arm swung towards him and Al brought up his arm to block, but it was a bluff. Ed darted behind him and a kick to the lower back sent Al sprawling on the snowy cobblestones. He started to roll over, but Ed dropped down on him, knees digging into his spine. Ed grabbed Al's arms and dragged them behind his back. He started pushing them up out of the sockets and Al howled as the joints started to separate.

"S-stop," Al shouted as he started to see sparks in front of his eyes.

Ed pushed harder and Al howled again.

"…Brother…s-stop!"

"You're staying here," Ed said.

"N-no! You need my OW!"

"You're staying here," Ed repeated.

"No! Argh!"

"Say it. Say 'I'm staying here'."

"No no no!"

Ed pushed harder and started twisting. Al gagged it hurt so badly.

"Say it!" Ed commanded.

"I'm…I'm…brother-"

Ed twisted.

"I'm staying here," Al ground out.

Ed let go and got up, but he didn't offer Al a hand. He just walked away across the courtyard, grabbed the backpack and disappeared.

"Brother?" Al called weakly after him. A sob wracked his chest and he staggered to his feet. "Brother?"

There was no answer.

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Ginny found Al on the stairs of the Astronomy Tower. She sat down next to him. He'd obviously been crying. His eyes were red and puffy and his breathing was wheezy. But he seemed to have run dry.

"Your brother gave me a letter for you," she said.

Al didn't reach to take it from her.

"I'd read it to you, but he wrote it in your language."

"He left me behind," Al said.

"Welcome to the club," Ginny said.

"You don't understand. He can't leave me. He's all I've got. He'll do something stupid if I'm not there. He's never coming back!"

"How old are you?" Ginny asked.

"Fifteen."

"You sound about four."

Al frowned. "Don't make fun of me."

"Why not?"

Al was rather stumped for an answer.

"Want to know what I think?" Ginny asked.

"No," Al said, pouting.

"Toooooo bad. I think being in that armor really stunted your emotional development."

"Well thanks for that observation, **Doctor**," Al growled.

"I think it messed up your brother, too. You're…what's the muggle phrase…codependent emotional cripples. Maybe it's good to have some time to grow on your own."

"He's going to get himself killed if I'm not there to watch his back."

"No, he won't."

"What do you know?" Al growled.

"Your brother fights better than my brother, than Harry, and definitely better than Hermione if he managed to take down Greyback. He has a lot of experience in life and death situations, right?"

Al nodded.

"Harry has no idea what he's doing and he's made it this far. Your brother will make it, too."

"So you're fine just sitting here doing nothing?"

"Who say's I'm doing nothing?"

Al waited for her to continue.

"I'm training. I'm listening…gathering information. They won't take my help now, but when they need it, they're going to get it, asked for or not."

Al nodded, feeling slightly less doomed. He took the letter and Ginny walked away.

"I'll be in the Great Hall getting breakfast," she called back.

"Yeah. Thanks," he replied.

**_Dear Al,_**

**_I'm sorry I twisted your arms. Work on the cylinder. I'll be back to help you soon. I have to do this. I have to see this through. If I don't…I've got a feeling it will all go away. They don't believe in equivalence, but I'm still in debt. Stay safe._**

**_-Edward_**

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Ed hurried through the snow. He remembered the way into town, but it was starting to snow and he didn't want to be caught in a white out. Hogsmead was much more active then the night he'd arrived. People were wandering about in the early morning sun, gossiping and buying. He pulled his hood up over his head. It wasn't much of a disguise. He'd transmuted a coat from some of the other clothes in the bag. He wondered if maybe he shouldn't have gone with his trademark bright red. He found The Three Broomsticks and hurried inside.

The pub wasn't very crowded, but a few people were at the bar drinking amber colored liquor. Ed looked around. There was the fireplace. He stared at it for a moment. All he had to do, according to Ginny, was throw in the green powder she had given him, and yell Diagon Alley as he jumped in after it.

_It shouldn't be that hard, _he thought_. I risk burning to death every time I go into Colonel Mustang's office. But maybe I'll wait for someone else to go first_.

He found a table and sat. He had a few coins Ginny had loaned him. He'd studied the patterns on them, and was fairly certain he could make more, if the situation called for it. The waitress, a large dark haired lady with a very large chest, came to his table.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" she demanded before he could order.

"I don't go to school," Ed said.

The woman snorted. "Schooled or not you're not getting liquor from my bar."

Ed shrugged. "I'm here to use the…" he trailed off waving towards the fireplace.

The waitress looked at him for a long moment, and then her eyes widened. "You were in the paper last week," she said.

Ed shrugged.

"You're the little boy who killed Greyback!" she said.

"I'M NOT LITTLE!" Ed shouted in her face.

She looked taken aback for a moment, and then laughed and gave Ed a rather suffocating hug. When she let him go, he was blushing so hard his ears felt on fire. Why was everyone in this country so grabby? With a hand on his back she guided him towards the fireplace.

"In the paper it said you were from another country," the waitress said. "They don't have a Floo network where you're from?"

Ed shook his head.

"It's very simple. Just take your Floo powder," she paused while Ed fished out the bag. "And throw it in."

He threw the bag in, and it exploded in green flames that burned taller then he was and spilled out around the hearth.

"You usually take it out of the bag," the waitress said laughing. "Now just step in and shout the name of the place you're going."

Ed watched the fire. Hesitantly he reached his automail arm towards it. The waitress chuckled again and gave him a shove. He stumbled into the fire. He panicked and would have jumped out again if the woman weren't standing in the way. It took him a few seconds to realize he wasn't actually burning.

"Now shout where you want to go!" she said.

"Diagon Alley!" Ed managed to say.

"Good luck little boy!" he heard the waitress shout as the pub disappeared in a flash of green light.

He stumbled out of the fire into another pub. This one was more crowded, and the waitress much less friendly.

"Diagon Alley?" he asked.

She pointed him towards the back door. There was an alley outside with several other people in it. Ed watched them as they tapped one of the walls with their wands. The bricks rearranged themselves allowing the people to walk through. When they were gone the bricks moved back into a solid wall. Ed looked at the brick wall. He'd seen the bricks tapped. He could probably copy the pattern.

"Screw it," he muttered.

He clapped his hands and slapped them to the wall. The bricks melted and reformed into a neat arch. A few people gave him strange looks as he walked through. More attention was given to the arch in the wall.

"It's not going back?" a woman asked the man next to her.

Both of them were wearing strange pointy hats.

"Perhaps the spells have worn out," the man suggested.

Ed walked through the crowds of nervous people. Most of them were looking around as if they expected an attack at any moment. For the most part he was ignored, though several old witches asked him if he needed help finding his mommy. He was amazed at this self-control. All he'd said in reply, through clenched teeth, was "no thank you".

He found the shop without too much trouble. The local language was pretty straightforward after all.

**Weasley Wizard Wheezes**

The store was crowded, and Ed very narrowly avoided several elbows to the head as he squeezed in the door. There was a banner hung against one of the walls declaring there was a "Fred's Not Dead Sale" in effect, which apparently entitled everyone to ten percent off their purchases. The store was filled with barrels of candy and brightly colored boxes stacked up almost to the ceiling. Ed frowned. The shop wasn't that big, but he didn't know if he'd be able to spot Harry and his crew even if they were there. He tensed and started to bring up his fists as a hand landed heavily on his shoulder.

"Well if it isn't little red ridding hood who slays the big bad wolf," George Weasley said.

Ed suspected he was being insulted, but George was giving him a very friendly grin, so Ed didn't immediately hit him in the face. He started to talk but George cut him off.

"Fred's just started work again. I'll get him."

George turned away but instead of going to another part of the store, he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"FRED! YOUR DEATH EATER BEATING, WEREWOLF SLAYING FRIEND IS HERE!"

Everyone in the store stopped what they were doing to stare at Ed. He tried to pull his hood down over his face. People started whispering.

"WHO'S HERE?" Fred called from the back of the building.

"How many Death Eater beating, werewolf slaying friends do you have?" George asked as his twin pushed through the crowd.

"Ah! Ed! So glad you could make it!" Fred said, as if he was expected. "Today only, anyone who saved my life gets a free gift bag!"

"No thanks," Ed said. "I-"

"You saved me from a horrible torturous death. You can have a few free samples," Fred insisted.

"You carried me until I found my leg. We're even," Ed said. "I'm just-"

"Far too modest!" Fred declared. "Shouldn't he get a free gift bag?" Fred asked the ring of customers that surrounded them.

"Yes!" they answered.

"I-" Ed tried again.

"Right this way," Fred said, hooking his arm through Ed's and pulling him through the crowd. "You can pick from the experimental stuff we keep in the back."

Ed was pulled behind the counter into the storeroom behind the shop.

"Exploding Éclair?" Fred asked, offering Ed a suspiciously quivering pastry from a tray.

"Ginny told me not to eat anything you touched," Ed said.

Fred smiled, nodding as he set down the tray.

"So, what brings you to our little experiment in capitalism?"

Ed puzzled over the word capitalism, and after concluding that it either meant explosions or annoying marketing, got to his point.

"I need to talk to Harry," Ed said.

"He's coming here?" Fred asked.

Ed nodded.

"How do you know?" Fred asked.

"Ginny said they'd be here soon, to pick up supplies."

"Is there some reason you couldn't talk to him somewhere else?" Fred asked.

"He doesn't want to hear me."

Fred nodded sagely. "Well you're welcome to wait here for them, but they don't exactly come by schedule."

"That's fine."

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Harry, Hermione, and Ron waited until just before seven to apparate to Diagon Alley. The twin's store would be closing and they'd be able to pick up new supplies without too much gawking from the public. They hurried into the store which was nearly empty, except for a couple of old witches giggling over the automatic dentures, Fred behind the cash register, and Edward Elric sitting on the counter, swinging his legs and looking bored.

"What are you doing here?" Harry demanded.

"I need to talk to you," Ed said.

"About what?" Harry asked.

"About something you don't want other people to hear," Ed said, getting off the counter and walking past Fred into the storeroom. Harry followed him frowning.

"I am going with you," Ed said when they were alone.

"What?"

"I'm going with you to that house, to look for the Horcrux."

"What did you..? You found the pensieve didn't you?" Harry asked.

"If you're talking about that glowing cauldron on the staircase in the north wing that sucks your head in when you look at it, then yes. I saw what you're planning and I'm going with you."

"No you aren't. It isn't safe. You don't know what you're dealing with," Harry said.

"I know more than you," Ed said. "I've been in the Military since I was twelve. You don't know how to set up an ambush. You don't know how to sneak. I don't think you even know how to duck. You don't take war seriously."

"You don't know anything about magic," Harry responded. "You can't cast charms or hexes. All you can do is a sort of primitive transfiguration. You'd only be in the way."

"I can do something I know you can't," Ed said quietly, staring the other teenager directly in the eye.

"What?" Harry demanded.

"I can kill," Ed said in a low voice. "And I've seen that you can't."

Harry's mouth worked for a few minutes, but he couldn't seem to produce any sounds.

"What business is this of yours, anyway?" Harry finally demanded in a smaller voice.

"There has to be equivalency," Ed said. He'd searched hard to find the right words in their language, but Harry didn't seem to understand.

"I owe you and your friends and your teacher for what you did for Al. He's human again, flesh and blood. He's alive. I tried to make your teacher name a price, but she pretended she couldn't understand me. But I know she wants you to survive this mission you've been sent on by a dead man. I know all of you want that. I can't make this balanced again if I don't do this. I can't pay my debt if you're dead."

Harry stood there feeling rather helpless.

"I guess every suicide mission has room for one more," Harry replied.

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**Author's Note**: Sigh! I know the Pensieve was a bit of a copout, but since it was the premise of book six I can get away with it, can't I? Don't forget to review!


	11. Chapter 11

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 11: The New Recruit**

Ed sighed and rolled over in the bed. It was the same one he'd been given when he had stayed at the hidden mansion the week before. He didn't think of it as his bed though. He hadn't thought of any place as his own since his mother had died. Even before he burned the house down, it had stopped being home. Now he felt strange, as he took up a place in someone else's. The sheets smelled clean, though the rest of the room was dusty and faintly stale. An orange glow from the streetlights crept around the edge of the window shades, reflecting off knickknacks on the dresser that occupied the room. He heard quiet steps in the hall as someone walked to the bathroom. A door closed, water ran.

He tried to close his eyes, but he couldn't sleep for more then a few minutes at a time. He let his eyes close, but they snapped open as three sets of footsteps passed his room. He pushed back the bedding and slipped his feet into his shoes. He hadn't changed out of his clothes. He suspected this would happen. He picked up the bag he hadn't unpacked and crept into the hallway.

Ed knew they planned to leave without him. Harry had allowed him back to the Order Headquarters where he, Hermione, and Ron were staying the night, but Ed knew from the exchange of nods and mouthed words that a ditch was in progress.

Ed followed them to the kitchen. Instead of turning on the lights, the end of their wands were glowing, leaving most of the room in shadow. They had laid out a net on the floor and were piling up the boxes they'd purchased at Fred and George's store, along with sacks of groceries, several duffle bags and a wicker basket containing a large and unhappy ginger cat.

"Are you sure you can direct it properly?" Ron whispered to Hermione.

"I wouldn't send Crookshanks this way if I didn't," she whispered back.

Ed supposed that was good enough for him. As the shadows thrown by their wands bounced around, he darted onto the net and hunched down among the boxes, holding his backpack on his lap in front of his face so they wouldn't immediately notice him. He bit back a curse as something in the pile tipped and landed on his head.

"Is that everything?" Ron asked.

"If not we'll buy it along the way," Harry said.

There was a flash of light and the net pulled itself up around the pile, crushing Ed against the boxes as it tied itself tightly closed.

"Should we leave a note for Ed?" Hermione asked. "I mean…he was trying to help. He might be upset."

"No," Harry said. "If there's nothing, he might think we're coming back. The longer he stays here, the longer he's out of danger."

"Besides," Ron said. "If we let him come then Ginny would want to come, and we'd end up with half the D.A. along."

Ed heard the pile shift as Hermione tied something to the top of the net.

"There," Hermione said. "Now I just have to activate it."

"So do it," Ron said impatiently.

Tap!

The world started spinning.

Ed grunted as the net full of luggage made a jarring landing, rolling and bouncing to a stop on wet grass. After a few gasping minutes he over came the urge to vomit and pushed out of under the boxes. He transmuted his right arm into a blade and cut his way free. A hiss from the pile caught his attention and he reached back into the net and fished out the cat in the basket. He freed the animal and used alchemy to repair the net.

He looked around. He was in a large lot surrounded by a tall, rotten, wooden fence. In the center of the property was the stone foundation of house with a few scorched beams sticking up out of it. Assorted rubble had been pushed in a pile toward the rear of the lot, as if some one had started to clean up the wreck but given up halfway. The cat mewed and bumped its head against his leg so hard he nearly fell over. It scurried over to the remains of the house, and reluctantly Ed followed.

A burned wooden sign lay crooked across the stone steps; 1 Gondric's Hollow.

"Just like home," he muttered.

As Ed stepped across the threshold a shiver went through him. In the distance, he thought he heard a baby crying. The hair on the back of his neck stood up. He knew something had happened here. Something worse then just a fire.

"Just like home," he muttered again, as he turned around and went back to sit by the luggage. Five minutes later the air split with a resounding crack as Harry, Hermione, and Ron appeared.

"Took you long enough!" Ed called.

The three magic wielders drew their wands, but Ed just rolled his eyes.

"How'd you get here?" Ron demanded.

"I took the train," Ed drawled.

"The train doesn't go here!" Ron said, missing the sarcasm.

"You were in one of the boxes," Harry said, looking from Ed to the net full of luggage.

"I was sitting next to the boxes," Ed said. "Though I doubt you would have noticed if I was dancing in a circle around them."

"Fine, you're here," Harry said. "You're going right back."

Ed laughed. "Are you going to make me?"

The three exchanged looks. Ed could tell they were scheming something, at least Harry and Hermione were. Ron seemed to have settled into an expression of bored hostility after the initial exchange.

"How about this," Harry said. "If you can throw off one particular curse, we'll bring you along no more arguments. If not you go back to the school."

"What curse?" asked Ed.

"The Imperious. It's a mind control curse. If you can't resist it you'll be more of a burden then a help."

Harry waved his wand and a metal ring pulled itself off the net and flew into his hand. He passed it to Hermione who waved her wand over it and then dropped it on the lawn between them.

"That portkey is set for Hogwarts. All you have to do is pick it up and you'll be back there. Maybe you should just pick it up now and avoid all this," Harry said.

Ed rolled his eyes. "Just curse me already."

Harry turned and fired. "Imperio."

There was a flash of green light. The world became fuzzy, unclear, and painless.

"Pick up that portkey and go back to Hogwarts!" Harry ordered.

Ed didn't move. It was strange. A voice in his mind told he wanted to go to the school. It wasn't a lie either. He wanted to go back, to make sure Al was safe. To just hang around and be a teenager with no pressure and no guilt. But that wasn't his life. His life wasn't a drifting pleasant fog. His life was pain and aches and torment. His life was debts and sins and responsibilities. _How can I give up all that?_ he thought, bitterly.

"Pick up the portkey!" Harry ordered again.

"Take your portkey and shove it!" Ed growled, shaking his head to clear the fog.

He blinked away the last of the haze and saw the three wizards were staring at him.

"You didn't even twitch!" Hermione said, slightly awed.

"Hurray for me," Ed said. "Can we get on with this please? I'm not getting any younger."

After a few more annoying expressions of surprise they finally picked up the boxes and luggage and walked around the rotten fence and out of the lot. Ed was a bit exasperated when Harry pointed out their transportation.

"This?" Ed asked, looking at the mechanical monstrosity that was parked just outside the fence.

The truck and attached trailer were covered in rust, spider webs and dirt thick enough to grow a few enterprising weeds. Hermione raised her wand and with a few muttered words that layer of nature disappeared. The truck seemed to be in good shape despite its exposure; four wheels, no broken windows…doors. Ed wished he knew even the basics of mechanical engineering. Harry went to the truck and pulled up the hood. Ed watched the other teenager inspect the engine and suspected Harry didn't know any more about engines then he did.

The trailer wasn't locked, and Ron ducked and hunched to get through the small door in the side. Ed followed him, finding the entrance annoyingly roomy. It was packed with clutter, so Ed just added his armful of boxes to the nearest pile. There was a table and two chairs bolted to one side of the trailer by a little counter and sink filled with pans. At the back of the trailer there was a tiny closet sized bathroom, containing a toilet filled with blue liquid. In the narrow space at the front of the trailer, where it hung over the truck, was a bed that even Ed couldn't have sat up in without banging his head on the ceiling. Every other space in the trailer was filled with junk. Ed wanted to laugh as he watched Ron stumble and dance his way across the tiny room, whilst trying not to step on any of the open books, baskets, bottles or ceramic animals that littered the floor.

"What is all this?" Ed asked as Ron started digging in a wicker cabinet, discarding more junk over the floor as he did.

"Research," Ron growled.

"What kind?"

CRUNCH!

Ed looked down and saw that he had crushed a ceramic frog beneath his automail foot. The jagged shards seemed to be sparkling.

"Don't worry. We've ten more of those, somewhere."

"What are they?" Ed asked.

"Enchanted objects. Hermione was using them to come up with better tracking spells. That's how we found the cup. Hermione used pieces of the journal that contained a bit of HIS soul in it to find other bits of HIM. We couldn't get the spell to work again after we found the cup though. Don't know if it's because HE noticed or if the other horcruxes are just too well hidden. It wasn't that great of a spell anyway. The first few times it just pointed at Harry. Hermione thought it was because Harry soaked up so much of HIS magic when HE died trying to kill Harry. Or maybe it's because Harry bled all over the book when he was destroying it."

Ron shrugged. "Ah!" He pulled a set of keys out of a wicker chicken, which had been inside the cabinet.

"Have you got them yet?" Hermione called from outside.

"Why didn't you just summon them?" Ed asked as he climbed out, to get another box to put away.

"If I did that they would come flying through the side of the cabinet and make a complete mess."

"So the mess in there is currently incomplete?" Ed asked.

"Ron! You said you'd cleaned," she called.

"One minute!"

CRASH!

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Harry rode in the trailer with Ed. They didn't really expect Ed to break anything or turn them over to Death Eaters, but there was a consensus that he should be watched. Ed didn't seem disturbed by the scrutiny. He just sighed and rolled his eyes. The trailer rocked and bounced them as the truck dragged it onto the road. Harry heard the radio come blaring on in the cab of the truck followed by Hermione's shrill scolding that it was too loud and if Ron didn't turn it down she would end up driving them all off the road. Harry looked over at Ed again. He thought he should say something, but he wasn't exactly skilled in the art of conversation.

"If the police pull us over, hide," Harry finally settled on.

"Why?" Ed asked suspiciously.

"It's illegal to ride in the trailer," Harry said.

"Why?" Ed asked.

"Its not safe," Harry said.

They hit a bump and a ceramic chicken fell from on top of a pile of boxes and shattered on the floor.

"Big surprise," Ed said, with another eye roll.

After forty-five minutes Ed broke the silence. "How long is this going to take?"

"Two days," Harry said.

Ed looked a bit startled. "You can instantly appear anywhere. Why are you going this way?"

"If we apparate in, we'll set off alarms. They'll know right where we are. We bought this trailer a while ago, and Hermione put concealing spells on it. If they try to find us with magic we'll look just like a regular bunch of muggles. This way we go in under the radar."

"What's radar?" Ed asked.

"Well…uh….it's a muggle thing. They bounce radio waves off of planes to tell where they are. But you can avoid detection if you fly close enough to the ground."

Ed looked thoughtful for a moment. "So those big flying machines, the air planes, they don't use magic?"

Harry shook his head. "No, American muggles invented them a hundred years ago. When I was still in normal school, before Hogwarts, we watched a video about them. They use an…airfoil…I think it was called. I don't really know. Hermione can explain it better then me."

"How could you not know?" Ed asked.

"I don't know," Harry said. "I wasn't paying that much attention."

"They were teaching you how to fly and you weren't paying attention?" Ed asked, incredulous.

Harry shrugged. "I don't know how every muggle thing works. Most muggles don't either. Do you know how your robot arm works?"

"It's not a robot arm, its automail!" Ed said. "And I'm not a mechanic," he added defensively.

"Well then," Harry said.

Things went back to being awkward for another half hour.

"Why do you live separately from the normal people? The muggles?" Ed asked. "I looked over the books at the school library. They weren't very…clear. It seems like your magic could really help them, like that girl at the hospital."

"Magic can really hurt them too," Harry said. "I don't agree with the all or nothing way things are done, but the laws are already in place, and I don't have anything better to replace them with."

"Where I come from, Alchemists get along with regular people alright. We even work for the government."

"Must be a very nice place you come from, if everyone can see that you've got powers and doesn't treat you like a freak or try to have you burned at the steak," Harry said. "It sounds very…tolerant."

Ed started laughing. "Yeah," he said. "Nobody hates Alchemist, or tries to blow them up or anything."

Harry knew he was missing something, but let it go. Ed finally calmed down enough to ask about the town of Little Hangleton. Harry got out the maps.

"Voldemort's base is the house his muggle father used to live in. I've never been inside the house itself, just the grave yard behind it," Harry said.

They spent the next hour going over the map and statistics of the town; population; 2156, terrain; rocky foothills, major export; wool. It didn't take Ed long to notice that Harry had a lot of information, but no real plan.

"So you're plan is just to go there and sneak around until you find this snake?" Ed asked.

"We're going to start with _surveillance_," Harry said. "That's another reason we brought the trailer. It's spell screened, so theoretically we won't be picked up by their detection spells. We'll see what's what and go from there."

"But beyond this, you have no plan? Do you even know how many Death Eaters are in the house, or guarding it? Anything else?"

Harry shrugged. "We have some Ministry reports that the Order snagged. They're pretty sure there aren't any giants, dementors, or other large magical predators in the area. They don't know for sure because this has become a sort of unofficial forbidden zone for the Ministry. They know they don't have the resources to take on the Death Eaters, so they're just trying to contain them in there."

"So if you call for help, your government won't send anyone in there after you?" Ed asked.

"No, we're on our own," Harry said.

"Great," Ed muttered.

"The portkey is still active," Harry said.

Ed rolled his eyes and sighed again.

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They'd parked in a wooded rest area. Hermione stretched and then rubbed her eyes. They'd been on the road five hours, but it felt more like ten. She wondered idly if Ed knew how to drive. She didn't trust Ron to operate the truck, and Harry couldn't keep under the speed limit if his life depended on it. Not that any of them were legally qualified to drive, even her license was fake.

"It's not working!" Ron called from inside the trailer.

Hermione sighed and climbed the steps. Ron was staring intently at the hot plate. Ed was slouching against the wall, looking slightly amused.

"I pushed the buttons like you said," Ron complained. "Soup shouldn't be this hard. Can't I just use a warming charm?"

"We agreed no spells unless they were absolutely necessary. You just have to do this," Hermione said.

She leaned past Ron, plugged the hot plate into the car battery under the counter, and then pressed the 'on' switch again. She turned the dial to medium. The coils started to glow orange.

"Don't forget to stir the soup, or it'll burn on the bottom. And don't touch the coils!" she said, as she climbed out of the trailer and continued her stretch break.

"Ow!" Ron said.

"She told you not to touch it," said Ed.

Hermione sighed and walked around to the back of the trailer. She sat down on the bumper, pushing rocks around with her toe. After a few minutes Harry came out of the woods. He'd said he was going to walk for a bit to stretch his legs. She suspected it was his fear of the trailer's chemical toilet that had led him to seek the great outdoors, but she didn't say anything.

"Ed said he'd give us some lessons in hand to hand fighting when we stop for the night," Harry said to break the silence.

"You really think it's alright to bring Ed along?" Hermione asked. "He doesn't really know what he's getting into."

"I think he does," Harry said. "Its Ron I'm worried about. He's been…unfocused lately."

"Its just that whole mess with Fred and…" She trailed off for a moment. "He got through the fight at the Department of Mysteries, and when we fought at the school," she finished a bit defensively.

"I'm just worried," Harry said. "I keep thinking he's not going to duck when he should."

"But you're not worried about me?" she asked, teasing though she didn't really feel like it.

Harry's answer was cut off by Ron's shout from within the trailer.

"Hermione! What's a muggle way to put out a fire?"

After a lunch of scorched soup and bread, Hermione suggested Ed ride in the cab of the truck with her, while Harry helped Ron organize the trailer.

"So you wanted your chance at interrogation hu?" Ed asked as he put the seat belt on.

"Oh…well," Hermione said. "We just don't know that much about you, and since we're all going to be in an intense situation, it might be useful to put everything on the table."

"You think I'm hiding something?" Ed asked.

"No…its just…I know you aren't a Death Eater. You aren't even from our world so how could you be? But that's the point isn't it? I mean you aren't from our world so why would you care about our fight?"

"I explained before," Ed said. "I know Harry told you. I'm in debt for Al, to your group and your teacher. There has to be equivalency."

"That's one of the things I'm not clear on. I thought you were saying equivalency was the principle that governed your alchemy. Is it a philosophy also?" she asked.

Ed drew a little circle in the dust on the dashboard. "Alchemy and transmutation involve redirecting the flow of energy," he began.

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"What do you think they're talking about?" Ron asked, looking through the tiny window in the front of the trailer.

Harry put down the box he was supposed to be sorting through, and went to the window as well. Hermione and Ed were talking and waving their hands emphatically. The truck started drifting into the opposite lane and Hermione jerked the wheel back. The trailer tilted a bit.

"I don't think I want to know," Ron concluded crawling away from the window. "They've just started drawing equations on the inside of the windshield."

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On the second day, Ed was left in the trailer with Ron while Harry and Hermione rode in the cab. Ed tried to keep his eye rolling under control. The others had all asked their questions. The annoyingly tall freckled teenager was the only one left. Ron shifted in his seat. _Here we go again_, Ed thought.

"So," Ron said. "You hate Death Eaters?"

"Yeah," Ed said. "They did attack me and my brother without provocation and torture me."

"Death Eater's suck," Ron said, knowledgably.

Ed nodded.

Ron went to one of the cabinets and took out a brightly colored box. Ed studied the label.

**Leprechaun Marshmallow Charms**

Now with whole grain!

A healthy part of a balanced breakfast.

Ron pulled open the box and took a handful. He passed the box to Ed. Ed raised an eyebrow.

"If I eat the whole box by myself, Hermione is going to yell at me," Ron explained.

Ed took a handful of the cereal. It looked more like candy then breakfast food. What the hell? Ed thought and started eating. He waited for Ron to ask him some other question, about loyalty or motive. Ron just held out a hand until the cereal box was returned. Ed wondered if this was the final acceptance ritual. He held out his hands and Ron passed him the box.

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They made good time. It was the evening of the second day when they found the turn off for Little Hangleton. As they pulled off the highway, Ron went to one of the boxes they'd purchased at his brothers' shop. He took out several glass globes, which were filled with gray mist. The mist started turning yellow.

"Does that mean anything?" asked Ed.

"Don't think so," Ron said. "If it turns red it means we've set off a detection spell. I guess yellow is a warning."

The road wound itself through high hills that seemed to lean in towards them. There were patches of snow here and there, but nothing like what they'd had to wade through at Hogwarts. Ed was very relieved when the hills seemed to lean back a bit, and the town came into view. It was much more like Armetris then any other place he'd seen in this world. There was a cobbled main street and two other cars on the road. They rumbled past a pub with a rotted wooden sign hanging above the door.

"The Hanged man?" Ed asked.

"Let's not stop there for Dinner," Ron said.

They pulled in behind a café; more pleasantly named Annie's. As they came around to the front of the building Hermione pointed out a light pole to them. It was covered in Lost Cat posters.

"Good thing you left yours in the car," Ed said.

The café wasn't crowded, but Ed suspected it was as crowded as things got around here. An old couple was sipping coffee in one corner. A young couple was sipping milkshakes. A man with a book was picking over fries.

A heavy woman in an apron pounced on them the moment they came in the door.

"That your trailer out back?" she demanded.

"Yes," said Hermione springing to the front of the little group.

As the most mature and polite member of the group, Hermione usually took care of their interactions with the adult world.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" the waitress asked.

"We graduated," Hermione said, pleasantly.

"Did you?" the woman said, unconvinced.

She frowned as she led them to a booth and fetched menus.

"You kids up to something? This place isn't much for tourists."

"No." Harry said. "We're just seeing a bit of the country."

"We heard there was a haunted house around here," Hermione added in a conspiring whisper.

"Oh you mean the Riddle House," the waitress said, suddenly friendly. "It used to be a few miles up the road."

"Used to be?" Hermione asked.

"It's been gone…a while…"

"What happened?" Hermione asked.

"Did it burn down?" Ron asked.

"No….it…well I can't quite recall. I think the government seized it and took it down." She walked to the window, and pointed. "It used to be right up there."

They looked and saw nothing but an empty hilltop, but none of them could shake the feeling that something was looking back.

Dinner was strange to say the least. Hermione had assured them they could order anything, as she was paying with the strange plastic card she'd used to buy fuel for the truck. Ron got a hamburger and fries, Hermione had soup and salad. Ed requested spaghetti. Harry ordered steak, extra rare.

Harry's two friends gave him a strange look, so Ed guessed this wasn't normal. When their meals arrived Ed knew something was off. Harry's steak was still oozing blood, but undeterred, Harry cut off a large chunk and swallowed it without chewing.

"Are you feeling alright?" Hermione asked.

"I'm starving," Harry said, gulping down another chunk of meat. "It's freezing in here," he added, starting to shiver.

Hermione and Ron exchanged looks, but didn't try to stop Harry from eating. They did however loose their appetites. Ed got to finish Ron's fries.

As they were getting ready to leave, a girl walked in the café and went straight through to the kitchen. Her voice floated back out to them.

"Mum, I can't find Buttons."

"I told you not to let him out," the waitress said. "He'll come back when he's hungry."

"Lizzy said she saw a snake."

"It's November. She saw a garden hose."

"She said the snake looked in her window," the girl whined.

"That's enough out of you. You'll give yourself nightmares. Go put a dish of food on the porch. Your cat will be back by morning."

"I don't want to go by myself."

"You came here by yourself."

"MUM!"

"Fine. Go sit. I'll walk you when I'm done."

The girl flounced out and sat down at one of the booths. A few minutes later she started bothering her mother for dessert.

"It's Nagini," Harry said in a low voice. "Hunting."

"Are you occluding?" Hermione asked in a whisper.

"Trying," he muttered. "Lets get out of here."

Hermione paid, and they trudged out to the trailer. Half way there Harry threw up.

"Nagini's nearby," Harry said, wiping his mouth.

"If she's down in the village she'll be easier to kill," Ron said. "Maybe this will work out better then we thought."

"If she's in this village You-know-who might know we're here," Hermione pointed out

"She's moving back towards the Riddle House," Harry interrupted. "She caught a cat, swallowed it...but it's too cold for her to digest it. She's not feeling well."

"How does he know this?" Ed asked, very glad Al was not along to hear about cat eating.

"They're in each other's heads," Ron said. "It's a possession thing."

Harry hurried toward the trailer. "I've got a plan!" he called back. "Hurry!"

Harry was gathering things from boxes they'd bought from Fred and George. Ron and Hermione followed suit, hanging amulets around their necks.

"Get Crookshanks," Harry said.

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"Because there's still room for dessert."

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**Author's note**: I know there were no explosions in this chapter. I'm sorry! Fear not, for coming next is **Crookshanks' Mission**! It will be madcap, I assure you. Don't forget to review, or flame. It's at your discretion really.


	12. Chapter 12

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 12: Crookshank's Mission**

Ed pressed his hand against his chest to keep the amulets from bouncing and clanking as he ran. He glared at the others who weren't bothering to do the same. What good would spell-shielding amulets do if they made such a racket the enemy couldn't help but notice you?

They wore the darkest clothing they had, though none of it had spells on it, since that might set off detection spells on the property. Ed frowned as he pushed up the sleeves of his borrowed black sweatshirt. Even Hermione's clothes were too big for him. He ground his teeth as he saw the little kitten embroidered on the left upper chest. He hoped he wouldn't be caught dead in this thing.

Hermione gasped something unintelligible and they had to slow down so she could get a few sentences out.

"We've crossed under anti-apparation wards," Hermione said, holding up one of her amulets, which had turned black.

"What about portkeys?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, but probably not," she said.

"We keep going," Harry said, and they did.

The lights of the town were already far behind them. There were approximately four miles of foothills between the town and the Riddle property. Ed wasn't sure how many of those miles they had crossed. As the dark hills leaned over them Ed wondered again at the veracity of Harry's information. If he were a large magical predator, this seems like the kind of place he would hang out. He still wasn't quite sure what a Dementor was, but he didn't want to find out by running smack into one.

Harry led them on, following some trail only he could see. They kept to the low ground at least, moving around the bottom of the hills instead of crossing over the top. Ed wouldn't have thought they had even that much sense. _Of cours,e how much sense do I have, following a guy who claims he can see through the eyes of a snake? _They came to a dry creek bed and Harry led them up it, then along a slumping hillside to a small area of flat land. A figure loomed over them and Ed was about to take a swing when he realized it was a statue; a man with wings and a sword. He looked past it, and saw they were in a graveyard.

Ed shuddered and looked around. He saw light on the top of a hill half a mile away, and realized it was a huge house. He wondered why he could see it from there but not from the town. He didn't bother to ask, since the three wizards would only answer "magic".

"She's almost to the Riddles' house," Harry said, hunkering down next to a headstone. He turned to Hermione. "Can you send Crookshanks to lure her back here? I don't think we should get any closer if we don't have to."

"I don't know about this," Hermione said, starting to object.

The cat slinked up to her out of the dark and gave a little mew.

"You understand?" Hermione asked.

The cat lashed its tail and darted off into the bushes behind the graveyard. Ed looked up at the house again, and wondered what the hell he was doing, entrusting his life to a cat.

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Draco shoved his arms down into the cauldron and felt around. He knew he'd put thirteen hearts into the Blackening Brew to soak, but only twelve sat in the tray beside him. A frown crossed his features and he froze and then blinked slowly. It had been a while since the fog had thinned enough for him to do even that much. He turned slowly and looked around the potions lab.

Professor Snape stood over a cauldron on the other side of the room, stirring powdered manticore scales into a poison. Draco tried to remember what Snape had said he was working on. It didn't really matter. Anything with manticore scales in it would kill you, the only variable was how fast. Draco looked to the narrow window near the ceiling that let light into the basement that housed the lab. A cat darted past the window. He caught a glimpse of tawny fir and a squashed-looking face.

"That's Granger's cat," Draco said.

"What!" Snape demanded.

"That's Granger's cat," Draco repeated in a monotone, pointing toward the now-empty window.

The fog was settling in again, and he went back to feeling around for the last heart. He had to bury them in salt for a week before they were ready for the Over Shadow potion.

"Are you certain you saw that Mudblood's pet?" Snape demanded, suddenly in front of Draco's face.

"Yes," Draco said.

"Leave that," Snape said. "Come with me."

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The grass was high, and that worked in his favor, though he didn't like the burrs that stuck in his fur and caught at his whiskers. He lashed his tail as he smelled a mouse, but knew he couldn't stop yet. He had to lure the snake back to the children. The snake was fast and he could smell the terror of other cats upon its breath, but he was not afraid.

Crookshanks saw his target, the huge serpent circling the house. It was headed for an open door. Crookshank leapt and sank his claws into its back. The snake writhed and turned, seeing him hanging there with his claws dug under its scales. The snake lunged, but it wasn't quick enough. Crookshanks darted away, lashing it across the face with his tail as a final insult. He ran back into the long grass, the raging serpent sliding after him.

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Harry looked over at Ed. He looked bored in contrast to Ron and Hermione who were so nervous they were shaking. Harry looked down at the dark detectors that were hanging from his neck. All of them were active, but the threat levels were low. They were well within the Riddle House's wards, but they hadn't come under scrutiny…yet.

Harry closed his eyes, focusing on the shaky occlusion he'd mastered over the past few months. He could feel the snake still pressing against his mind, but he didn't feel any other will. He was fairly certain that meant Voldemort wasn't aware of him.

There was a pop and Harry looked over. Ed was stretching against a gravestone, and his automail was making disturbing metallic sounds. Hermione and Ron were holding hands. Harry looked up at the sky. Two figures on brooms flew overhead landing on the roof of the mansion. They disappeared inside. Harry checked his watch. A half an hour had gone by. Hermione was whispering to Ron about her cat, and starting to look sniffly.

"Reeeeeeeow!"

They all tensed as the cat's yowls reached them. Hermione pressed her hands to her mouth and nearly poked herself in the eye with her wand. The tawny cat darted between the headstones, passed through the group and kept going.

Harry cringed. He could suddenly feel grass and stones rubbing against his belly. He could smell humans as well as cat. For a moment he saw a human with glasses and messy dark hair staring down at him. The human raised its wand.

"Reducto!"

Harry staggered as the red light slammed into the snake and blood and bits of ichor splattered over him. He looked through his own eyes again and saw the dead snake. The spell had blown open the animal's skull and most of its body as well. Despite the fatal wound, it was still twitching. He fought the urge to start kicking it.

Hermione shuffled over to the corpse and waved her wand over it.

"What are you doing?" Ron asked.

"I'm going to see if I can use it to start up the tracking spell again. Maybe the diary gave out because it was too old or something. Oh no!" she muttered.

"What?" Ed asked.

"It wasn't a horcrux," Hermione said.

Harry's mouth dropped open and he couldn't seem to get it closed. Dumbledore had been certain. Voldemort could see out of the snake's eyes and control it. It had to be a horcrux.

_He can see out of your eyes, too_, said a little voice in the back of Harry's mind.

"Check again!" Harry ordered.

Hermione cast her spells again, but her grim look remained. "Sorry Harry. It wasn't one."

"Oh crap," Ron muttered. "What do we do?"

"We get the hell out of here," Ed said, giving them little pushes to get them moving.

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Snape waved his wand and a map formed on the wall of the parlor. Red lines appeared on the map, indicating the extent of the wards that kept people from apparating into the area. He scanned the map, but none of the alarms had been tripped. He cast several detection spells, but they, too, found nothing. Draco had been certain, though.

If it was Potter, he could not have chosen a better time to do something so foolish. The Dark Lord was organizing an attack on an Auror office in Durham and wouldn't return for several hours, unless Snape called him back. He looked at the map again. What could Potter be after? The boy wasn't so stupid as to believe that he could take on the Dark Lord directly. Snape searched the map again, face inches from the surface. If they were there, their shielding spells were impeccable.

A Death Eater with a crooked mask leaned nervously through the door.

"Professor?" asked Theodore Grint, a former student of his.

"Help Malfoy assemble the Dark Lord's servants. Search the property in teams of two. There may be intruders," Snape ordered.

He needed proof that there were intruders before he bothered the Dark Lord. Snape was very much aware that he was not above reproach. Snape left Avery to watch the map and hurried out the door. Dozens of men and women in skull masks and black robes poured out of the mansion ahead of him. Some of them vanished under invisibility cloaks or spell screens. Others took to the air on brooms. As he crossed the grounds behind the Riddle House he wondered at Dumbledore's faith in the Potter brat. If the boy really was foolish enough to be caught running around in the Dark Lord's backyard, everything he'd warned the old man about would be vindicated.

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Ed crept along the edge of the slumped hill. He could hear the others below him, but something wasn't right and he paused to listen. One, two, three, four, five sets of foot steps. Ed leaned into a hedge to hide the light as he transmuted his arm into a blade. Harry crawled past, pausing to look at Ed, who held up two fingers and pointed behind them. Harry nodded, and waved Hermione and Ron past, before following.

Ed waited as their footsteps faded and others approached. A shadow passed, only a strange wobbly outline against the sky. It was a tall person hidden by magic, though not as well as Harry's cloak would have hidden him. Ed watched the shadow move on along the hill, oblivious. A second shadow came. Ed strained his ears, but heard nothing come after. When the shadow was even with him, Ed kicked out, aiming for where the knee should be. There was a yelp of pain as his guess proved right. The shadow fell over and Ed darted forward, finding the man's arm by feel and planting his foot on an invisible chest. He pulled and twisted it out of its socket. The downed man howled in pain and Ed slammed his automail fist down on the source.

He saw light in the corner of his eye and dove forward, dodging a curse. He turned ready to charge, but a blue flash of light hit the shadow and it dropped to the ground, the magic that had hidden it faded. Ed saw Harry lean over the downed man and pull off his skull mask.

"Nott. Who've you got?" Harry asked Ed.

Ed pulled the mask off his catch.

"Malfoy…" Harry muttered.

Ed looked down at the boy, and recognized him as one of the guards from when he was first captured. The boy with the dead eyes.

"If you're going to do something, do it," Ed said. "Otherwise let's go. More will come."

Harry nodded. He cast freezing charms on the fallen Death Eaters and they scrambled off to catch up with the others. Hermione and Ron were waiting for them at the bottom of the hill. Hermione checked the ward detector that hung around her neck, and pointed forward. They crawled forward, looking up, down, back and forth as they went. A figure on a broom flew high overhead, but didn't seem to spot them. They passed the spot where they had first detected the wards, but Hermione waved them forward, shaking her head.

"They must have expanded them. Hurry!"

"Down there!" a gruff male voice called.

"Quiet, fool!" a woman replied.

"We've been spotted. You three go ahead," Harry instructed them.

Hermione started looking weepy. Ron said "No way". Ed slapped Harry upside the head.

"You're wasting time," Ed growled. "We're going together."

The group hurried on, running outright rather than their previous creeping. Ed saw Crookshanks darting through the bushes ahead of them, heading up a rock-strewn hillside, tail lashing impatiently. They followed the cat. As they sprinted up the hill, lights flashed. They dodged in different directions as the curses pounded into the hillside. More lights flew at them and they scattered further, firing back at their attackers. Ed saw at least fifteen sources of incoming fire. He clapped his hands together and slammed them down. The ground shook and split, blasting dirt and rocks over their attackers, blinding them. Again they ran.

It was only after Ed paused for a moment to look around did he realize that they had all run in different directions.

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Draco Malfoy stared up at the sky. His lip was bleeding into his mouth. His right arm was immobile agony. His mind was clear. The pain had finally cut through the oppressive folds of the imperius curse. The months that had passed in a drifting fog came back. He had no desire to be a boot-licking goody-goody, but he didn't want to be evil, either. And what he had done over the past months had been evil. He rolled over and staggered to his feet. The amulets he wore to repel curses had dissipated the freezing charm Potter had cast. Nott's apparently weren't as good.

Malfoy stumbled past the other teenager, his former friend. He didn't help him. It wasn't like he was in any danger. Potter and his crew weren't killers, not like he was. He didn't look for the wand he had dropped. He ran. Draco heard shouting, but didn't stop. He had to get away, but where could he go? Where was far enough? He could feel it, burning into his arm. There was nowhere. He ran anyway.

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The string of profanity running through Harry's mind seemed woefully insufficient. He looked back over his shoulder at the dark figures chasing after him. All of his dark detectors were glowing bright red, and he was fairly certain they weren't helping him make a stealthy escape. He ducked as a green light flew at him and stumbled across uneven ground. He turned and sent a stunning curse back at them. He considered calling out to his friends, to try to bring them back together or at least figure out where they were, but there was still a chance that the Death Eaters didn't know who they were chasing.

Harry stumbled again; this time he was unable to catch himself. He tumbled down another hill. He scrambled up and ran again, but as he came over the top of a hill, he realized he was getting closer to the Riddle House, rather then farther away.

_What made me think I could do this? _He thought as he ran_. Why did I lead them here? Why did they pick me for this?_ He tried to shove his blaring doubts into the background as he looked for the others.

He tripped again, landing on his hands and knees. He heard pounding feet. There was a clump of sad-looking scrub to his right. He rolled under it and held his breath, wand aimed.

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Draco saw him coming, and bit back a growl of frustration. He hadn't even made it off the property before being caught again.

"Draco! What are you doing?" Snape demanded.

"Looking for Potter," Draco answered, trying to keep his tone dull but honest. For a moment he thought he had him fooled.

Snape watched him with narrowed eyes. "Come here, Draco," he said finally.

"No!" Draco said, backing away.

"It is for your own good," Snape insisted. "You won't survive outside. Both the Ministry and the Dark Lord will hunt you down."

"It doesn't matter anymore. Nothing matters anymore!" Draco said.

"Stop being foolish," Snape said, sounding frustrated as well.

"Stay away from me!"

"Imperio!"

Draco threw himself out of the way, rolling as a silent stunning curse followed after the unforgivable. He scrambled to his feet and fled down the hill. He tripped and stumbled, tumbling to the bottom. Something moved in the bushes a few feet away. As he pushed himself up he realized he was face to face with another person he really didn't want to run into.

"Malfoy?" Potter hissed, barely audible, but clearly surprised.

"Draco…come back here!" Snape growled. "You will obey or you will die. There are no other options."

Draco got swaying to his feet and started to run again. There was a flash of light and a thump. He turned and saw Snape face down on the ground. Potter walked up to the fallen man, and raised his wand. The other teenager's face was twisted in rage, and Draco was certain he knew the curse Potter was about to cast.

"No!" Draco shouted, stumbling back towards them.

Potter lowered his wand. "Why?"

"It's….wrong," Draco finished lamely.

"Stupefy!"

Both teenagers ducked as a red light struck the ground between them. They ran.

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"Hurry!" Hermione called back to Ron. "We have to find them."

Ron was trying to cover their backs. It seemed like every time he turned around Hermione was farther ahead of him. A Death Eater came over the top of a hill to his right, and Ron picked him off with a blasting hex.

"Hurry!" Hermione called again.

"Wait up!" Ron called, but she was already out of sight.

He sprinted forward but she seemed to have vanished. He tried to control his breathing, to hear something over the rushing sound in his ears. He heard shouting and explosions, but they seemed too far away, probably caused by Harry or Ed. He tried not to panic, but he had suspicions that he was already panicking. _What's the next stage after panic?_ he wondered as he ran through the gullies at the bottom of the hills, searching for his girlfriend.

_She's the genius_, he growled to himself. _How could she do something so stupid?_

He tried a locator spell, but his wand just spun in circles. Desperately he sprinted up the nearest hill. His chest was already burning and he was feeling lightheaded. He'd never run so much in his life. He saw red and green lights flashing over by the Riddle House, and a few hills over a group of Death Eaters were running parallel to him. There was an orange flash a hundred yards to the east and he headed towards it, up one hill and down the next.

He saw Hermione finally, squaring off against a female Death Eater, who cackled as they traded curses. Ron realized the other witch was Lestrange. There was another Death Eater, unmoving on the ground. He supposed Hermione was holding her own, but just as he was thinking that she was going to be alright, she dropped her guard to look back towards him.

"Reducto!" Bellatrix Lestrange cackled.

Hermione shrieked as the red light lifted her off her feet and flung her into the side of the hill. She landed with arms and legs flung out, and lay still. Ron howled and charged. Every curse he threw Lestrange blocked, laughing. He was almost close enough to lay hands on her when she finally bothered with an offensive spell. The silent disarming charm knocked the wand out of his hand with ridiculous ease. Ron didn't stop to think. He took a swing. The spell that hit him threw him down in the dirt. He sat up. Lestrange's wand was so close to his face it was making him crosseyed.

"Nowhere to go, little blood traitor?" Lestrange cooed. "Missing your little whore? You'll catch up with her soon."

Ron looked up at the hateful woman and his eyes widened, not because of the mad look in her eyes, but because of the huge shadow lumbering up behind her.

Lestrange seemed to collapse in on herself as the shadow struck. She landed in a crumpled heap on the ground. Her arm came up, aiming her wand, but the huge creature dropped onto her. Something crunched. The creature gave a guttural bellow and sat back on its hind legs. Ron's mouth dropped open. His mind tried to process it.

_A bear? Where the hell did a bear come from? _

Ron shook as he tried to get up. His arms wouldn't support him. The beast lumbered over to him. Something wet and foul dripped onto his face.

POP!

The beast was gone and Hermione was leaning over him.

"Ron? Can you hear me?" She asked.

"Animagus?" he choked out over his raw throat.

"Yes," she said as she pulled him to his feet. "I've been practicing since we left school."

"So it was you making weird sounds in the library! Why were you hiding it?"

"I didn't want to show you and Harry until I could get it right," she said, picking up their wands.

"Why? What wasn't right?"

"I couldn't get my clothes to change with me," she whispered.

"I wouldn't have minded," Ron said.

She elbowed him as she dragged him up the next hill.

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Ed tried not to get annoyed. _While we were planning this, maybe we should have picked out a fallback point._ He rushed around the hill, crouched low to the ground. He heard them walking and the swishing fabric of their clothes. He sped up, coming out of his crouch as the three Death Eaters came into view. He leapt up, and kicked the closest one in the face. The man stumbled back as his mask crumbled apart. Without pause, Ed lunged at his next target, rolling under the blast from a wand. He came up, delivering two rapid blows to the man's solar plexus. The final Death Eater was too close for Ed to dodge, so he brought up his automail arm to block the blast of light coming at his head. Ed kicked his attacker in the knee, and as he fell, Ed brought his automail fist down on the back of the man's skull. He paused for a moment to look around. For a moment he was alone. Then he heard a familiar voice.

"What's a Death Eater giving me a moral lecture for?" Harry growled.

"Aren't you supposed to be the good guys? You can't do things like that!" another voice answered.

Ed jogged towards them. Harry was running along with the Death Eater he called Malfoy a step behind them. Ed dropped in silently behind them.

"New recruit?" Ed asked, causing the other boys to stumble in surprise.

"Shit! Ed! Don't do that!" Harry said, as he lowered his wand.

Malfoy was gawking at Ed. Ed gave him a glare.

"Have you seen the others?" Harry asked.

_Yes, but I decided to continue running in circles on my own because it's so much fun_, Ed thought. "They're probably heading back towards town. If we head that way, we'll run into them."

A few minutes later Ed was proved right. Hermione and Ron came stumbling around a bend and the two groups narrowly avoided cursing each other.

"You've got blood all over you," Harry declared as he saw Hermione.

"It's not mine," Hermione said, attempting to sound casual as she struggled to catch her breath.

"Why is Malfoy here?" Ron demanded.

"Later," Harry said, as he vaulted over an inconvenient hedge.

"Are we still under the wards?" Ed asked.

"Yes," Hermione gasped. "They're expanding as fast as we're running!"

"How do wards work?" Ed asked.

"I don't think there is time to explain that," Hermione said. "Usually there's a centralized casting chamber where magical energy is stored, and the wards expand out from there like a net. In **_Hogwarts, a History_**-"

"Where are they expanding from?" Ed interrupted.

"The house, from the Riddle House," Hermione said.

"Right," Ed said.

He skidded to a stop and clapped his hands together. The others were shouting questions at him as he slammed his palms to the ground. Blue light flashed around him as he focused on the soil. Ed forced the silica particles in the ground to crystallize. Other bits of carbon and metals reorganized themselves, contracting and collapsing the layers of earth above them. The earth quaked.

The Death Eaters running over the hill after them stumbled and fell. In a storm of blue light the hill split open, spouting dirt and escaping gases. The hill behind it split as well and the one behind that and the one behind that as the light traveled. The earth rumbled as the reaction traveled up the final hill toward the Riddle House, perched black and glaring at them through the new valley Ed's alchemy had created.

The house rattled and windows shattered. The chimneys shook and tumbled from the roof in a shower of bricks. Something under the house caught fire, and a jet of flame shot up, catching splintered wood. The foundation cracked and crumbled. Beams burst under the strain and in one final burst of light, the House split down the middle and the separate halves tilted and dropped down opposite sides of the hill.

"The wards are down," Hermione whispered into the echoing silence that followed.

Ed tried to stand but his knees gave out and he fell face down in the dirt. He'd put way too much into the reaction. Hands grabbed him under the arms and he saw Malfoy and Ron were pulling him upright. They were raising their wands to disapparate, arguing over who would carry who, when the thing appeared. Ed had trouble holding his head up but he managed to choke out a garbled warning of what was coming up behind them. The wizards turned. Ed's vision blurred, but he got a very good look at the hateful red eyes glaring at him from a pale, melted-looking face. Then with a resounding crack, the world around them vanished.


	13. Chapter 13

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 13: Black Hearts **

Ed pulled away from the arms holding him upright, and immediately fell to the ground. They were no longer near Little Hangleton, at least. Ed looked around and saw only rows of large identical houses stretching away into the distance. The five of them and one large cat stood in the driveway of one such house. Ed saw a four on the mailbox. The door of the house swung open before any of them could even think of approaching it, and a thin, angry woman peered out.

"You said you wouldn't come back," she hissed shrilly.

Harry shrugged. "I said I wouldn't come back for a million pounds."

"I'm not letting you in!" the woman said.

"Alright," Harry said. "We'll just sit in the driveway where all the neighbors can see us."

The woman sucked in air through her teeth. She seemed about to scream, but instead turned sharply and walked back into the house, leaving the door open behind her. Harry seemed pleased by this and led them in. Ron helped Ed stagger along, despite his protests that he didn't need help.

Harry paused in the doorway, holding up his wand and muttering.

"He's reactivating the wards around this place," Hermione whispered to Ed. "Dumbledore set them up a long time ago. This is much faster than if we tried to set wards around a new building. They'll probably be stronger, too."

Harry finished, and they crossed the threshold. Ed was a bit shocked. The house was so clean it seemed to emit a force field that tried to pressure the sweaty, dirty teenagers back outside.

"Hello, Mrs. Dursley," Hermione said to the woman, who was now glaring at them from a doorway down the hall.

The thin woman started to respond, but upon noticing Hermione's blood-splattered face, she simply gaped like a fish. In the bright electric lights of the house, she looked much more gory. Harry wasn't quite as bad, since the snake guts spattered on him were more purple then red. Malfoy had his own blood smeared all over his face, as well as quite a bit of dirt. Ron looked like he had rolled down a muddy hill. Ed wanted to smirk, as he was the only one not coated in filth, but he wanted to pass out more.

"What? What have you…?" Mrs. Dursley shrieked. "Are the police going to show up?"

"Only if you keep screaming like that, lady," Ed said.

"I won't be spoken to like that, you little brat!" she shrieked.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL HE CAN'T-"

"Calm down Ed, before you pass out," Harry ordered. "Aunt Petunia, we need a place to stay the night, and maybe tomorrow, too."

"I don't want you freaks in my house again."

Harry shrugged. "If it helps, we don't want to be here."

She turned her back on them and started pulling buckets and rags out of under a counter. "The neighbors had better not see you," she said without looking at them.

Harry led the group upstairs to a wooden door heavily studded with locks. All the locks were on the outside. The door led to a small room, with bunk beds and a desk. Without invitation, Ed made a controlled fall into the nearest bunk.

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Draco watched the Griffindorks as they wandered in and out of the room. One of them was always in there with him, while the other two argued in the hall and washroom. At the moment he was stuck with the mudblood. Granger kept scrubbing at her face with her sleeve, but that wasn't doing much to clean off the blood.

He leaned against the wall, trying to find a comfortable way to hold his arm. Potter had spelled it back into the socket for him but it sent searing pains through him whenever he inhaled. He glared at the boy snoring in the bunk. It was impossible. A runt like that couldn't have broken his teeth and pulled his arm loose, much less knocked down the Dark Lord's house and gotten away without a scratch or even a smudge.

"Where are we?" Draco asked finally.

"Harry's aunt's house," she answered, as if that were obvious. As she spoke he saw she had stringy bits of red stuff in her teeth.

Draco rolled his eyes. "I meant how far from the Dark Lord's…former house. He's probably trying to track us."

Granger shrugged.

"What am I supposed to do?" Draco asked, frustrated.

"I don't know," she said.

She started rubbing at her face again.

"Whose blood is that?" Draco asked.

"Lestrange's," Hermione answered.

Draco's stomach dropped a bit. He didn't know Bellatrix Lestrange very well, but she was his aunt, his mother's sister. Bellatrix was the only one still standing up for his mother among the Death Eaters. But now what? He hadn't even seen his mother in almost a year. She might already be dead. Granger switched sleeves and continued scrubbing at the blood.

"Why don't you go wash it off, you stupid mudblood!" Draco snapped.

A moment later he was crumpled on the floor trying not to piss himself. He hadn't even realized she was going to kick him until it was too late.

"Nice shot," the boy called Ed said. He had one gold eye open and was watching with a smirk as Granger's foot settled back to the floor.

Draco lay there, wondering if he should have just stayed with Snape.

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"Where's your uncle, anyway?" Ron asked as he bent over the sink to wash his face.

"I think he was sent to that 'blood pressure hospice' they were talking about over the summer," Harry said as he leaned in the doorway. "I guess he couldn't stop turning purple at work. His bosses don't want to have to pay his company life-insurance."

"Oh," Ron said. "Why do muggles even have life insurance? It's like they're betting they'll die."

"You want to buy some?" Harry teased. "You could end up in a very expensive coffin."

Ron splashed water on him.

"What are we going to do with Malfoy?" Ron asked.

"If we take him to the Order, they'll rush him off before we get anything out of him," Harry said.

"Well we can't just ask him if he's heard anything about missing bits of Voldemort's soul. He'll find a way to leak it back to them," Ron said.

"Voldemort wouldn't tell him anything, anyway. What I think we might be able to get is information on the cylinder, and just maybe he knows something about R.A.B. They are family, after all."

"What are we going to do about the trailer?" Ron asked.

"Go back for it tomorrow, I guess. Things should have died down by then. We can leave Hermione and Ed here to watch Malfoy."

"You're going to drive?" Ron asked.

Harry nodded.

"Can I trade with Hermione?"

Harry threw a towel at him.

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Harry and Ron sat in the back of a truck, watching the hills roll past. They'd apparated to the highway and then hitched a ride in a muggle truck to avoid attention. As they came within sight of the town, the truck rumbled to a halt. Sawhorses blocked the road and men in police uniforms were turning people back. Harry recognized one of the "officers" as Kingsley Shacklebolt. Harry and Ron climbed out of the truck with a wave of thanks to the driver.

"What's going on, Officer?" Harry asked the disguised Auror.

The tall man started a bit as he recognized Harry in muggle clothes.

"Sir," Shacklebolt said, with a look that said 'get the hell out of here,' "The area is closed due to a pesticide spill."

"Potter!?" demanded a loud voice from the other side of the barrier.

Harry frowned as the Minister of Magic stomped towards him. He reached for the portkey in his pocket.

"Don't even think about it!" The Minister demanded, wand already drawn.

Ron hadn't actually been identified, but he raised his hands in surrender as well. More Aurors in police uniforms appeared, and they escorted Harry and Ron past the barrier in a not-so-friendly manner. There were tents set up on the edge of the town. Harry couldn't help it. His head turned toward what used to be the Riddle House. The destruction was even more impressive in daylight. It looked almost as if a volcano had formed on the hilltop. Ron was taken into one tent, Harry the other. The Minister followed him. _Should I be impressed?_ Harry thought sarcastically.

"What are you doing here?" Scrimgeour asked.

"Heard something interesting had happened. Came to see what was up," Harry said.

"So you have no idea what went on here?"

"This is Voldemort's neighborhood. I assumed whatever went on here was unpleasant."

"And I suppose you don't know how Bellatrix Lestrange ended up with half her ribs crushed and no head?" the Minister asked.

"Uh….not really," Harry said, thinking of the blood on Hermione's face.

"Or how the Dark Lord's base of operations was razed to the ground?"

"Definitely don't know _how_ that happened, Sir," Harry said.

"We moved in as soon as the wards originating from the Riddle House collapsed. Three Aurors were killed in the raid. A dozen others were injured."

"Am I supposed to feel bad that they were doing their jobs?" Harry asked.

"If you weren't keeping valuable information to yourself, we might have done things with fewer casualties."

"I don't have information that could help you," Harry said.

"Where is that boy who killed Greyback, and the muggle-born girl who travels with you?"

"Not here, obviously."

"I'm about thirty seconds away from having you arrested and questioned under truth serum, Potter."

"Even if you did, I couldn't tell you. Secret keepers and all that," Harry lied smoothly.

"Was Dumbledore's Order involved in this?" Scrimgeour demanded.

"Not to my knowledge," Harry said. "They don't answer to me. Or listen to me, for that matter."

"I know you're a part of this," The Minister said.

"That's an understatement," Harry said.

The Minister ground his teeth. Another Auror came in.

"Did you get anything out of the Weasley boy?" The Minister asked.

"He said they were in Little Hangleton to buy sheepskin boots."

"What?" The Minister asked.

"Weasley said they were going to Little Hangleton to purchase boots," The Auror repeated.

"Let them go," the Minister growled in disgust. "After you file their incident reports."

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Ed was stumbling down the steps as two explosive cracks rattled the windows. He resisted the urge to groan. He still didn't feel normal even after twelve hours of sleep. He paused to listen. There were voices in the kitchen, and the sound of frying things. He walked silently to the doorway and looked in. Ron, Hermione, and…Malloy…McCoy…. whatever his name was, were standing around the table and Harry was leaning over the stove.

"Why are you back so soon?" Hermione was asking.

"We got arrested," Ron grumbled.

"No, we didn't," Harry corrected. "We were held for questioning and didn't know any of the answers."

"Where's the screaming lady?" Ed asked as he wandered in and slumped into the nearest chair.

"Aunt Petunia's gone to the market, possibly for the rest of the day," Hermione said. She picked up a sheet of paper from the counter. "She made a list of things we aren't allowed to do."

Harry took the list and stuffed it into one of the burners. As Harry finished cooking breakfast, he and Ron told them about Little Hangleton, though they left out the real reason they went, the trailer, which apparently was inaccessible at the moment.

"Ed, can you keep an eye on Malfoy while Ron, Hermione, and I discuss some things?" Harry asked as he passed out the plates.

Ed nodded, and the three walked out with their plates, leaving the two blonds alone. The eggs were greasy and the sausage had bits of egg on it. For some reason it brought to mind the exploded snake of the previous evening. Ed poked at the food, trying for the most part to ignore Malfoy's stares. The taller boy flinched whenever Ed's automail creaked. Ed supposed he had thrown something out of whack fighting the night before. It wasn't like he had a maintenance kit. Ed wiped his knife and fork clean on his napkin and pried the cover plate off of his right arm. He used the fork to push aside a bundle of synthetic muscle cable and tightened the screws he'd exposed, with the tip of the knife. He removed the cutlery and experimentally bent his elbow. The creaking was still there, but only half as loud.

"Do you have to do that at the table?" Malfoy demanded peevishly.

Ed shrugged.

"Go in the bathroom," Malfoy insisted.

"Uh…..no," Ed replied.

"They're talking about me," Malfoy said.

"I don't care," Ed said. He put his plate on the floor and Crookshanks started in on it. Ed couldn't think of any other time in his life when he had turned down food. He wondered if he was getting sick.

"Don't you want to know what they're saying?" Malfoy demanded.

"No."

"What are they going to do with me?" Malfoy asked.

"Probably something stupid, like letting you go or turning you over to the school instead of the military …ministry …whatever."

"Why is that stupid?" Malfoy demanded.

"You're an idiot. You'll just get yourself caught again."

"I'm sick of this!" Malfoy said, getting up. "They can't decide what's going to happen with my life without me even knowing!"

"Sit down," Ed said.

"Are you going to make me?" Malfoy challenged.

He seemed to remember in that moment how easily Ed had taken him down the day before, and how wand-less he was. But even as his brain was recalling this, it was too late. Ed had swept his feet out of under him and twisted his arms behind his back.

"Is something wrong?" Harry asked, looking into the kitchen.

Malfoy couldn't answer because he was face down on the tile floor.

"He wants to know what you were planning to do with him," Ed said, as he let the much larger boy get up.

Hermione and Ron came back with now-empty plates.

"I want to know," Malfoy said.

"There's stuff we want to know too," Harry said.

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They spent the next three hours grilling Malfoy about every detail of Voldemort's operation that he had witnessed; kidnappings, murders, thefts, and threats. They covered rolls of parchment with maps of bases, lists of compromised Aurors and civilian wizards who supported them, as well as the Death Eaters themselves. Harry was just about to mention Regulus Black when Ed dumped in his own question.

"What do you know about the Alchemy cylinder?" Ed asked.

"The what?" Malfoy asked.

"The stone cylinder that dragged my brother and me here from our world," Ed said.

"That armored thing was your brother?" Malfoy asked.

Ed just glared at him.

"I didn't do any of the spell work," Malfoy said. "I was only on guard duty, making sure the Aurors didn't get the drop on us, and that the sacrifices didn't escape."

"Sacrifices?" Hermione asked.

"The translations they made of the runes carved into the rim of the cylinder said 'for something gained a living person must be exchanged'. There were several unsuccessful attempts, using assorted prisoners. It finally activated when they put Longbottom on it."

The trio looked stunned.

"The toad boy?" Ed asked. "It took the toad boy in exchange for us?"

"Neville's in his world?" Harry asked. "He's alive?"

Malfoy shrugged. "He was kind of a mess when they put him on the cylinder."

"That doesn't make sense," Ed said. "The mass exchange would be off, the life force exchange would be off, the number of souls would be off…"

Malfoy shrugged again. "I didn't build the thing. I don't know."

"Why did you bother taking him along?" Ed grumbled.

"While you were with the Death Eaters," Harry asked loudly, "Did Lestrange ever mention the murder of Regulus Black?"

Malfoy looked a bit stunned. He swallowed. "She never mentioned it…"

Malfoy looked shifty all of a sudden. He had told them about murder and torture without much difficulty or emotion, but now he seemed like he didn't want to talk.

"Why do you want to know about him? He's been dead for twenty years!" Malfoy declared rather explosively.

"Because it's important," Harry said.

"I…" Malfoy stopped to swallow.

"Spit it out!" Ron ordered.

"Shove it, Weasley!"

"I'm going to knock your heads together in a second," Ed said boredly.

Malfoy sighed and looked put upon. "I don't know anything about how he ended up dead, or who did it. I just saw something a long time ago, before I even started at Hogwarts. There are ghosts under one of our summer homes, in Devon. I asked my father about them the first time I saw them. He only said that they were blood traitors. We never went there again. It was a long time ago, but one of them looked a lot like the picture of Sirius Black that was in the papers when that nut job got out of Azkaban."

"Malfoy," Harry growled. "You're not in a position to speak badly about my godfather."

"What do you care about the Blacks for?" Malfoy asked.

"That's not your business," Harry said. "What kind of security spells are guarding the summer house?"

"I don't know. I haven't been there in years."

It took about twenty minutes of arguments and prodding and several threats from Ed to get all the necessary information out of Malfoy. After they had it all written down, Malfoy finally got to ask his question.

"Where am I supposed to go?" he asked.

"Where do you want to go?" Hermione asked.

Malfoy looked at all of them. He couldn't seem to come up with an answer. Harry supposed he could understand. Malfoy had nowhere to go. His family was Death Eaters. His friends were the children of Death Eaters. He was considered a Death Eater, so the Ministry wasn't likely to help him hide. He had no money. He hadn't graduated from school yet, so he couldn't get a job even if there was someone willing to hire him. Harry supposed he could just start from scratch in the U.S.A, Canada, or Australia, since they all spoke English, but Malfoy didn't seem that adaptable. Malfoy just sat there silently. Hermione seemed to come up with ideas similar to Harry's."

"Do you want to go to another country?" she asked.

"The Dark Lord has agents in all the important ones," Malfoy said. "Besides, my name is probably on a list somewhere and most international Wizarding law enforcement knows about the mark."

"I guess it wasn't so smart to get that tattooed on your arm, hu?" Ron said.

"I didn't want this!" Malfoy said. "I was under the Imperius curse!"

"You were practically bragging about it on the train to Hogwarts last year," Harry said. "Remember? It was about ten minutes before you kicked me in the face and broke my nose."

Malfoy looked at the table. "I couldn't let on to the others that I wanted out. Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy--they all report back to people in the group."

"So all that bragging and crap from first year on, that was all show?" Ron asked.

"First year? You're bringing up crap from first year?" Malfoy asked.

"How about second year, when your dad helped set that Basilisk loose on my sister and the school?" Ron demanded.

"I didn't know that was going to happen. He didn't tell me!" Malfoy said.

"And fifth year when you were helping Umbridge keep me from getting word out about Voldemort's return?" Harry asked.

"I didn't-"

"You didn't think you'd have to do anything? You thought all the muggle-born would just vanish?" Harry demanded, starting to turn a bit red.

"It wasn't supposed to go this far!" Malfoy objected. "The Dark Lord wasn't supposed to come back! You let him come back!" he shouted at Harry.

Harry stood up, pulled his wand, and was about to shout something, no doubt dramatic, when Ed kicked the table over. The clatter of plates, silverware, and bottles of ink shut everyone up.

"How about I cut off the arm for you?" Ed suggested. "No arm, no mark. You can just leave."

Ed didn't particularly care if Harry and his pals beat the crap out of Malfoy, but this wasn't getting them any nearer to a Horcrux or the alchemy cylinder that could get him and his brother home.

"I'm not going to let you cut off my arm!" Malfoy shouted. "I need it for…stuff."

They stood around awkwardly for a minute, and then Harry started cleaning up the mess. Hermione eventually went to help, while Ron and Malfoy glared at each other.

"Well, there's always Hogwarts," Hermione said.

They looked at her.

"How would that work?" Malfoy asked. "I can't be readmitted to classes. I doubt McGonagall would let me in, even if the Ministry weren't going to arrest me. Besides, the other Slytherins would kill me my first day back."

"Big loss," Ron muttered.

"So we transfigure you a bit, and you can go as a new student," Hermione said.

"If a new student suddenly appears at Hogwarts, they're going to hear about it," Ron said.

"Why don't you just go looking like Ed?" Hermione suggested. "That'll throw them off for a while."

"No!" Ed said. "I've had enough of people pretending to be me! Messing up my reputation-"

"You don't have a reputation here," Ron said. "What do you care, anyway? You're leaving as soon as the cylinder thing is working again."

"It still bugs me," Ed growled.

"I'm sure Draco will behave," Hermione said. "Besides, your brother can keep an eye on him."

"Plus we can put fake metal over his dark mark, like Ed's arm," Harry said.

"It's the wrong arm," Ed pointed out.

"Nobody will notice," Harry said, waving dismissively.

"They'll have to shrink him a lot," Ron said.

Ed kicked Ron in the knee.

"Aren't you worried about Malfoy pulling something?" Ron asked. "Your little brother is there."

"He and Al will probably get along great," Ed said. "Al's always making friends with serial killers, especially if they're on a revenge kick."

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Hermione frowned. She wished Harry and Ron had stayed to help her explain this. Harry seemed sure they could get the trailer this time, though. And Harry suspected the trailer would get towed if it was left behind the diner in Little Hangleton any longer.

The scratching on the door caught her attention. She opened it, and the cat ran inside. It went to the living room and hopped up on the couch. It sat with a primness not usually found in a cat.

"Professor," Hermione said nervously. "Would you care for something to drink?"

The cat scowled. A moment later a woman sat in the chair. "I don't have time for social niceties, Ms. Granger. What was so important to bring me all the way out here?"

"Come in," Hermione called.

From the look on her face, Hermione could tell the boy walking into the room was the last person McGonagall wanted to see. Draco let his feet drag as he came face to face with his former teacher across the Dursley's glass coffee table. He wore oversized muggle clothes and had a bandage taped to his left forearm. McGonagall's eyebrows hit her hairline. Ed walked through behind him, preventing escape.

"Mr. Malfoy?" she asked.

"Professor," he answered in a dull voice.

"Ms. Granger, a word?" the elder woman said, before striding out of the room.

As they entered the Dursley's kitchen, Hermione didn't know what to expect. Harry should have stayed to explain this. He was better with getting adults to do what he wanted.

"Harry thinks Draco should be kept at Hogwarts," Hermione started.

"I assumed as much when I saw …the mystery guest."

"Draco was under the Imperius curse, actually unlike most of the people who claim it, and he's given us all the information we asked for, which seems to be accurate, and they were going to kill him and his mother if he didn't help them sneak into Hogwarts. And if the Ministry gets him, and puts him in Azkaban, the Death Eaters will get to him very easily. It's practically a death sentence. If you hid him until this was over…"

"Do you believe he deserves such mercy, Ms. Granger?" McGonagall said.

Hermione swallowed. Harry had told them what happened in Dumbledore's office the night he died. She didn't know if that was enough. "I don't think he'll go back to them," she said. "They'll kill him for running."

"Unless he was meant to end up with you," McGonagall said.

"Well, we did consider that. That's the reason we didn't bring him to headquarters. But the school is already a target and if he was hidden-"

"Nothing hidden at that school remains that way for long," McGonagall pointed out.

"Oh, I thought of that. All you need to do is transfigure him to look like Ed. We'll be keeping out of the public eye, so if Ed shows up at Hogwarts again, who will know the difference? Besides his brother, I mean. And Ed seemed fairly certain Al would go along with it."

"And you think Mr. Malfoy deserves this?" the teacher asked again.

"Harry does," she said. "He left this for you."

She took the bowl Harry had left and handed it over. It was one of the Dursley's cereal bowls with grapes and cherries painted around the rim. The glowing blue strand of memory in the bottom was clear enough.

"Harry said it would make more sense, if you saw this," Hermione hurried to explain.

"And Mr. Potter believes this one memory is that significant?"

Hermione nodded. It was the night in Dumbledore's office.

McGonagall sighed. Rather then diving into the bowl, she poked the end of her wand to the strand. It stuck. She lifted it to her temple and it sunk in. McGonagall spent several minutes blinking, and then her face lost all expression.

"Professor?" Hermione asked.

McGonagall looked at her, and then sighed again.

"I don't believe what Mr. Potter has shown me is enough to warrant giving Mr. Malfoy a clean slate, but perhaps in time he will earn a second chance."

"Thank you, Professor," Hermione said. "You are going to keep a close eye on him though, aren't you?"

"Of course. And possibly the heel of my boot as well."

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Ed wanted to point out what a bad idea it was to rely on only Malfoy's word that he could recognize and identify a person who had died before he was born. It was too convenient that Malfoy changed sides and just happened to know something that useful. He also found it absurd that they were going to go ask a dead man questions. He kept his mouth shut, though. It would only lead to whining.

He just sat back and listened to the radio as they bounced along the road. The radio here was much better than what they had back home; he hadn't heard a single military report, just music, music and more music. A different station for every mood. It sort of filled up his head and pushed out the worrying and calculations that usually filled his waking moments. He wondered if the people in his world would be quick to rebel and riot if they had something like this.

Hermione didn't say much as they drove. There were more cars around, and people looked in the windows of the truck as they passed by. This place was so strange. It was half paved over, it reeked of chemicals and everyone was dazzled by technology and blind to magic.

A new song came on the radio. The words didn't make much sense. He wondered if it was in English or some other language.

"What's a Comma Chameleon?" Ed asked.

"They're saying Karma Chameleon," Hermione corrected.

"So what is it?"

"The song is metaphorical, of course. A Chameleon is a lizard that changes the color and patterns of its skin to match its surrounding, so it can hide from predators," she said.

"And Karma?"

"That's a concept from Hinduism, a religion from India. Karma is sort of like universal good will. The good things you do in this life add up and follow you into the next, so you are born again with better luck, or a better job or something. If you do bad things, that follows you too, and you come back as a worm or in poverty."

"That doesn't seem so bad," Ed said. "For a religion. What's the catch?"

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"Every religion has a bad side."

"Well Hinduism is much less violent then a lot of the other faiths, though it was used to reinforced the caste system in India. No one could ever move upward in society. They said if you deserved a promotion, or better wages, or even just treatment, you would have to wait for your next life."

"Knew it," Ed said. "In my world it's like that. Every religion is up to something. Leore is at war with rest of the country because priests of the 'sun god' kept telling them to rebel."

"Religions aren't bad," Hermione said. "Well, most aren't. I mean there were some with human sacrifices, but I don't think those are practiced anymore. My point is religions are a good thing; they try to guide people to the right decisions. It's just that people seeking power try to redirect them."

"What?" Ed asked. "Are you a believer?"

"I am, I suppose. I mean, just because we don't understand the messages or the purpose or whatever it is we're supposed to be getting out of life, doesn't mean it's all a crock. Every religion has some valid points. Though I'm not saying I think the Crusades were right."

She then had to explain Crusades and then Jihad and then just about every other religious conflict in the last 4000 years. Ed didn't seem to have wavered from his perspective, but their discussion did kill most of the trip to Devon. They pulled off the road into a field. The Malfoy summer home wasn't accessible by muggle road, so they would have to hike in. They climbed out of the cab and started to stretch.

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked as he climbed out of the trailer.

"Theology," Hermione said.

"But you're done, right?" Ron asked a bit fearfully.

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Yeah," Ed said. "Now we've got to have it out over theoretical chemistry."

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They found the trail Malfoy had described, and it led to an iron fence, which true to his word, opened when they spoke the password while placing their wands against the seventh stave. The property was unusually warm, and all the trees were still covered in bright green leaves, and a lot of them still bore fruit. They saw the house in the distance, barely visible through the foliage. It was a very large house, though not as large as the Riddle House. It was also much more friendly looking. Not that they were going to visit the house itself. Malfoy said the ghosts were under the servants' quarters.

They circled the bright building, and found the servants' quarters. The door opened to the same password as the gate, and led into a dusty room with a low ceiling, and a dead house elf in the corner.

"Oh my lord," Hermione said, inspecting the creature, which seemed to have been mummified by the unusually warm air.

"It was probably waiting for the Malfoys to come back," Harry said, as he pulled Hermione away.

They went to the back of the servants' quarters, and found a stairway leading down to a small room, lined with empty wine racks. They lit up their wands. Harry pulled on the center one, and it swung aside, revealing a long earthen tunnel, with a few stone blocks scattered here and there. They checked their dark detectors and followed after Harry.

The tunnel began to curve and ghosts swept towards them. The first was an old man with a befuddled expression. After that was little girl crying for mommy and a middle-aged man carrying his head in his arms. They didn't seem to notice the living people that passed among, and in some cases, through them.

"I thought you said there were ghosts here," Ed said.

"Don't you see them?" Ron asked.

"See what?" Ed demanded.

"They're all around us," Hermione whispered, as if trying not to wake people.

"Yeah, right," Ed said.

"Excuse me?" Harry said to the ghosts that were swirling around them so thick they could barely see anything else. "Have any of you seen Regulus Black?"

"He's further in," said a woman in an Auror's robes. "In one of the crypts."

"Thanks," Harry said.

They wandered through the tunnels, directed by one ghost after another, and followed by a confused and grumpy Ed. They finally came to a row of small cells, dug into the side of the tunnel.

"Well, if it isn't the Great James Potter!" called a mocking voice from within one.

"It isn't," Harry said, forcibly casual.

A faint blue light appeared in the chamber as the ghost drifted out of the wall. Harry bit his tongue to keep from calling the dead man Sirius. As he looked more closely, he realized the brothers did not look that much alike. Regulus Black's face was narrower and his eyes were different, more arched and mean-looking. The ghost peered at him suspiciously and then frowned.

"Alright, who are you, then?" the ghost asked.

"Even the ghosts at Hogwarts know who he is!" Ron said.

"I don't get out much. This place is warded to keep spirits trapped. Adds to the terror when they drag someone down here to off them," the ghost said.

"I'm Harry Potter," Harry said. "I've survived one killing curse from your former boss. I've been sent to destroy the Horcruxes Voldemort made-"

"Who are you talking to?" Ed demanded.

"You brought a muggle?" Black snorted.

"He's not a muggle," Hermione said. "He's an Alchemist."

The ghost stepped through Ed, and laughed as the boy shuddered.

"He doesn't hear me. He doesn't see me. He's a muggle."

"Whatever," Ron grumbled. "If you've got something to say, let's hear it. If not, quit wasting our time. We've got a dark lord to kill."

"Did you find out where the other Horcruxes were before they…got you?" Hermione asked.

The ghost looked from one chatty demanding teenager the next, seeming rather frustrated.

"I found three, but I could only destroy one."

"We know, the locket," Ron said.

The ghost looked put out. "How did you know? How do you brats know any of this?"

"Research," Hermione said. "We know there were six Horcruxes and the piece of soul still in Voldemort."

"The cup-" Black began.

"We destroyed that already," Ron said.

The ghost looked pissed, and Hermione glared at Ron. He shut his mouth.

"The scroll?" Black asked. "I see from your face you didn't have that."

"Ravenclaw's lost spell scroll?" Hermione asked. "It has its own chapter in the Founder's section of **_Hogwarts a History."_**

The ghost nodded. "She put her most prized spells into it. It was rumored she put in a bit of her soul as well. His sense of humor. He knew Dumbledore couldn't bear to destroy it. That was his strategy, in part."

"So where is it?" Ron asked.

"Not so fast, boy. There's a price."

"You want money? What are you going to spend it on? You're dead."

"I didn't say money, imbecile. I will tell you where the scroll is if you will swear an unbreakable vow to destroy my corpse."

"What?" Ron asked.

"Where is it?" Harry asked, looking around.

"I don't know," Black said. "He made an Inferi out of it…out of me. So swear it and I will tell you."

"I swear it," Harry said stepping forward and holding out his hand. The ghost reached out and shook it. It glowed faintly for a moment. The ghost nodded.

"Shortly before they caught up with me, I learned of the Scroll. The Dark Lord went with one of his servants to retrieve it, an old man from Ireland, who'd been a follower for a long time. I don't know if he knew he was to be a sacrifice; he may have volunteered for it. That man left a trail, however, that I am certain the Dark Lord would not have approved of. It is my belief that they didn't move the Scroll from its original resting place, but rather made it a Horcrux and added more defenses of their own."

"What kind of defenses?" Hermione asked.

"I can only surmise from the paper trail. The servant purchased a very ancient Sea demon lure."

"It's underwater?" Ron grumbled.

"Under the North Sea."

"In a building?" Harry asked.

"I don't know. I only have the muggle chart coordinates. I didn't have time to pay a visit, myself."

"Lets have it, then," Ron said.

"54 degrees North, 4 degrees East," the ghost announced triumphantly.

"That's it?" Hermione asked. "No minutes?"

"What are minutes?" the ghost asked.

"Never mind," she said.

"Any idea what the sixth Horcrux is?" Harry asked.

"So close to mortal," the ghost said. "He wanted something of Gryffindor's--his sword. It was somewhere within the school and he could not get it."

"We have the sword. He never touched it," Harry said.

"It would be something Gryffindor. That's all I know."

They stood about thoughtfully for a moment.

"What happened to James Potter?" the ghost asked.

"He's dead," Harry said.

"And Sirius Black, my brother?"

"He died last June," Harry said.

"Was he laughing?" the ghost asked.

Harry watched the ghost. It was becoming blurry at the edges as if whatever illuminated its form was fading. Harry nodded.

"He was laughing at Bellatrix Lestrange. They were fighting and he asked if that was the best she could do. Her next shot hit him and he fell through the Veil."

"Our mother used to say that about him, as if it were some kind of curse. 'Your fool brother will die laughing.' But I think he planned to go that way," Black said, dimming.

"No one plans to go," Harry said.

"I suppose not," the ghost said, fading completely from view.

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**Author's Note**: Thanks for the reviews. How was the dialogue this chapter? Am I keeping it real? Let me know.

**Disclaimer:** Karma Chameleon belongs to Culture Club. Mentioning it didn't make me any money.


	14. Chapter 14

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 14: Study Break**

It was dark and warm, and then suddenly it wasn't.

Al flinched as the light hit his face. He didn't know if he could get used to sleeping again. He knew little more then a week ago he would have forfeit the remainder of his existence for just one day as a normal human, but now the amazement had worn off and the awkwardness had set in.

As he found his clothes, he looked out the window of his small room in the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey hadn't allowed him to move back to Gryffindor tower. He hadn't really wanted to, in any case. The small room in the back of the hospital wing gave him plenty of privacy and a place to keep his research on the Alchemy cylinder, which Professor McGonagall said he shouldn't let just anyone see. There was no one outside on the grounds yet, and definitely no sign of his brother.

"I'm alive. Brother's alive. Things will work out," he said to himself.

It was becoming his morning mantra. Brother had been gone for almost a week now. Al still couldn't shake the feeling that he wouldn't come back.

Al wandered down to the courtyard and went through his morning calisthenics. He focused on the motion of the form he'd come to possess, the push and pull of muscles against ligaments and bones. His chest burned as he struggled to get enough air. As he took a deep breath, he felt his ribs strain against the steel circle buried in his chest, an annoying reminder that he wasn't entirely real.

About an hour later, Ginny showed up wanting to spar. Al thought himself a pretty good teacher, as Ginny almost managed to land a blow.

"Where do you think they are?" Al asked, blocking a punch.

"Who?" Ginny asked, huffing.

"My brother, and your brother and the rest of them," Al said.

"I don't know!" Ginny said irritably. "You know they don't tell me. Why do you keep asking?"

Al blocked a kick.

"You've got to get over this," Ginny said suddenly.

"What?" Al asked.

"Where's Ed? Where do you think Ed is? Do you think Ed is all right? Do you think Ed is eating his vegetables and wearing clean socks?" she mimicked.

"I am not," Al said.

"Are too," Ginny said, taking a swing at Al's head.

"Not!"

"Too! Bet you can't go one day without mentioning him," Ginny said.

"Fine!" Al said, catching Ginny's ankle and tipping her into the snow.

As they wandered back into the school to get breakfast Headmistress McGonagall passed them, giving them both disapproving looks. Al wondered about his own teacher. Mrs. Izumi Curtis had taught both combat and Alchemy to him and his brother, and Sensei Izumi had made the same mistakes Ed and Al had. If the wizards could turn a suit of armor into a boy, surely they would have something that would stop his sensei from throwing up blood. The thought stuck in his mind and he had trouble finishing breakfast. The morning newspaper took the rest of his appetite away.

**Potter's Crusade of Destruction Grows **

_**(Report delayed due to Ministry security procedures)**_

**The muggle town of Little Hangleton was rocked two days ago by a wizard battle only a few miles away. The Riddle Manor, the base of operation for many of He-who-must-not-be-named's activities, was destroyed by an as yet unidentified magical attack. In the aftermath of the destruction, Aurors arrived to contain the situation. A dozen Aurors were injured and three were killed, during this police action. Numerous memory charms were required to prevent muggle witnesses from causing a panic, but rumors of the incident are already spreading through the muggle community. Kingsley Shacklebolt, a ten-year veteran of the Aurors attempted to alleviate fears.**

"**The muggles don't know what happened. All they saw were flashing lights. Most of the ones who didn't buy into the cover story were convinced that aliens from outer space were landing."**

**The Ministry managed to capture seventeen suspected Death Eaters, many of whom were injured or wand-less and thus unable to escape when the Aurors arrived. When questioned under Veritaserum, the prisoners accredited the destruction of Riddle Manor to Harry Potter and a small group of teenagers. Two Death Eaters were found dead on the grounds of the manor, Ian Clearwater, whose skull was fractured by a blasting hex, and Bellatrix Lestrange who was mauled and decapitated by an as yet unidentified animal.**

**The morning after the attack, Potter and a companion, tentatively identified as Ralph Weasley, were taken in for questioning by Aurors when they arrived outside the town. The two were not held at that time, but the Ministry is now seeking them out for further questioning.**

Al looked up at Ginny, who had been reading over his shoulder.

"Idiots," she said.

"If they've blown up the base, doesn't that mean they're done and they'll come back?" Al asked.

Ginny shook her head. "If Voldemort isn't dead, they aren't done."

"It doesn't seem right," Al said. "I don't know why brother doesn't write to me at least."

Ginny just shrugged. "You've lost the bet by the way."

Al worked in the school library straight through lunch and the sun was already down by the time he found anything even remotely useful. They had quite a few books on astral projection, and the other worlds it granted access to. None of them sounded particularly like Amestris, though. The wizards had a lot of theories on parallel worlds, but next to no solid information. Though it wasn't like parallel worlds were a common topic in Amestris, either. Al closed his eyes, and everything faded away.

He jerked suddenly as he started to tip over. He scrubbed at his face. He wasn't used to needing sleep.

Al shuffled his notes. The best lead he had so far was something called the Veil. It seemed like the cylinder, but they didn't know where it led. It just seemed to be there. Al wondered if he could convince McGonagall to let him go see it.

"Probably not," he muttered. "She won't even let me go to the cylinder."

"Talking to yourself? That could be a sign of narwargles in the brain," said a slow, thoughtful voice from behind the stacks.

"What?" Al asked.

A girl with blond hair and widely spaced eyes peered at him from a gap between volumes.

"Narwargles," she said. "They get spread around in improperly corked butterbeer. If you laugh it up your nose, they can migrate from there into your brain."

"Uh…." Al said.

"Ginny asked me to tell you that she had detention, so she won't meet you here, because she's scrubbing the steps."

"What did she do?" Al asked.

"She threw a dead shrew at Professor Slughorn. I'm not sure why. What are you doing?"

The girl wandered out from behind the shelves and leaned over Al's table.

"Uh…" Al said.

The girl picked up one of the books on the Veil. "I've been there," she said.

"Really?" Al asked.

She nodded. "You can hear people on the other side. People you know call to you. I heard my mum, I think. Ron and Hermione didn't hear anything, though. They made us leave."

"When was this?" Al asked.

"A year and a half ago. We went to the Ministry to save Harry's godfather. It didn't work, though. He got shoved through the Veil. He didn't come back. I'm Luna."

"Nice to meet you," Al said.

"More often, it's confusing," she said.

Luna dragged a chair over to Al's table and sat down across from him.

"I'll read your cards," she announced.

"I'm kind of busy," Al said.

Luna didn't seem to hear him. She took a deck of cards from her bag and started shuffling.

"Maybe later," Al said to her.

She kept shuffling. Al didn't like cards. Lt. Havoc had showed Al how to play Tarot with a deck of regular cards, while he was waiting on his brother to give a report, years ago. Al always got the ace of spades. He chewed his lip. Of course everyone got the ace of spades when they played with Havoc, and then he would dramatically announce they were doomed.

"Cut the deck," Luna commanded, the sleepiness gone from her voice.

Al obeyed.

She started slapping cards down on the table, three rows of three. She slapped the last card down so hard the table rattled, and Al's inkwell tipped over. The card soaked through with black liquid. She didn't seem to care.

"The past," she announced.

She flipped the first card in the row of three. It was a picture of a boy in a red robe with a handful of fire. Al looked closer, and saw the painted figure had Ed's face. "The Magician" was printed at the bottom. She flipped the next one. Al read the title first. The Queen. The image was his mother. No one in this place could have seen her. He wondered how it could be a trick. The next card was turned. It said the King. He expected it to show his father, but instead Shou Tucker stared out at him from the wrinkled paper portrait.

"None of them will let you go," Luna said.

She pushed the three cards away, and they made little paper slaps as they hit the floor.

"The present," she announced.

Judgment bore the image of Scar. Justice was Nina, Tucker's murdered daughter. Death was Al's mother in a black dress that pooled like liquid around her feet.

"You got what you deserved," Luna said.

"What do you mean?" Al asked.

She ignored his question, and went to the next row.

"The future," she announced.

The World was a picture of the Rockbell's house in Resembool. The Wheel of Fortune was the cylinder that brought them over. Luna's hand paused over the last ink-soaked card. She looked at him and there was something he did not like shining in her eyes. She pushed the card towards him, but he wouldn't take it. She picked it up and held it in his face.

"The Gate," she announced.

"The gate? There's no gate in Tarot. That's the Tower," Al protested, staring at the ink-blurred image.

"Look," she insisted.

The stain in the center of the card was roughly rectangular, and little lines of ink were bleeding out of it, towards the edge of the card. The ink got to the edge of the card and flowed right off. The tiny black strands reached through the air towards him. The card suddenly looked very familiar. Al tried to get up from his chair, but an inky arm stretched out from behind him and bound him in place.

"They have a claim on you," Luna said.

More arms wrapped around him. They started dragging him backwards. The legs of the chair squeaked as they crossed the floor.

"Help! Please!" Al called.

"I can't," Luna said, still holding up the writhing card.

"Somebody! Somebody please help!" Al shouted.

A shadow fell over him and he heard the sound of stones scraping across each other.

"Brother!" Al screamed desperately. "Brother!"

He saw the sides of the Gate as he was pulled through.

"Brother!" he shrieked, his voice ending in a sob.

"He can't help you," Luna said from very far away. "Help yourself."

She tossed the ink-soaked card at him. It sailed through the gap as the Gate slammed closed, and landed in his lap. Al thought he saw a new image on the paper, but as he looked at it, the chair tipped backwards, and he fell.

"You fell," a girl's voice said.

Al opened his eyes and groaned. Luna was standing over him.

"The Gate! The cards…why…Did you see?" Al babbled.

"I saw you sleeping," Luna said. "Then you fell over."

"Sleeping?" Al asked. "Then it was a dream? I couldn't tell. You were there!"

"I suppose I could have been," Luna said. "I don't know where I am all the time."

"Do you read cards?" Al asked.

Luna nodded. She reached into her bag and took out a deck. She handed them to Al. He flipped through them, but the pictures didn't show people he knew. They were just rough characters.

"The Tower is missing," Al said.

"Oh," Luna said.

She dug through the bag, and frowned suddenly.

"My ink spilled," she said.

She pulled out an ink-soaked card. Al took it from her. It stained his fingers.

"This can't be!" Al said.

"It's not so bad," Luna said. "I have three other decks."

"I was talking to myself," Al mumbled.

"Careful," Luna warned. "It could be narwargles."

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Ginny sat on her bed with the curtains drawn. A small, heatless fire on her pillow cast a flickering light over her research material. She looked through her book of newspaper clippings. The attacks by the Death Eaters and the attacks she could link to Harry lay side by side. There wasn't a pattern. There wasn't a clue she could follow. Whatever Harry was chasing after, it wasn't written down.

She rolled the coin across her fingers. Hermione had given it to her. She could call them; she knew the spell. Would they come, though? She wasn't exactly a natural leader. She knew she was bossy, but that didn't mean people listened to her. Harry had the whole boy-who-lived title to draw authority from. What did she have? She was good with hexes and a decent flyer. She was also the idiot who let Voldemort's pet snake loose on the school her first year. People didn't bring it up a lot, but that didn't mean they had forgotten it. _This is more important than that. Harry might not understand that he'll need help, but I do. I'll have to make them listen. _She pressed her wand to the coin and it glowed as the date changed. All over the castle other coins would be changing as well.

Ginny extinguished the fire and crept down the steps into the common room. She checked her watch. It was one in the morning. She fought the urge to curse. It was all well and good to have a secret meeting at one in the morning, but it wasn't very likely that anyone would be checking their D.A. coins that late at night. She was thinking about just going back to her room when she heard mumbling from the boys' dorm.

"I don't know," she heard Dean Thomas whisper, "But I'm going to check it out."

"Fine, give me a minute," Seamus Finnegan answered.

She rushed out the portrait and down the steps. At least two people would be there. She frowned and ran a hand through her hair. After another moment's indecision she ran down to the hospital wing. Pomfrey wasn't at her desk, so Ginny hurried right on through to the room in the back.

Al was twitching and flailing in his sleep. He mumbled in his own language. Ginny didn't understand a word of it, but the tone was clear enough. Al was having a nightmare. She pulled the pillow out of under his head, and he sat up with a start.

"We're having a meeting," Ginny said. "About the war. Do you want to come?"

Al blinked, disoriented. "I guess," he said.

They rushed through the halls, skidding to a stop as they came across Filch, the school's foul-tempered caretaker, in one of the halls. They backed into an alcove just as he was turning around, but he must have seen something, because he was shuffling their way. Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, who would lead him to students who were breaking the rules, sauntered up to them. Just when Ginny thought they couldn't get anymore screwed, the cat rubbed itself against Al's leg. Al bent down in their narrow hiding place and patted the cat, and then pointed toward Filch. The cat purred and darted up the hall to its master.

"Smelled something, my girl?" Filch asked it.

The cat meowed and they heard Filch turn and shuffle off away from them. Ginny didn't know how Al did it. He charmed cats the way Harry did snakes. She wondered if there was an official title for that.

A small crowd was already gathered around outside the Room of Requirement by the time they arrived. Ginny paced the hall, and the door appeared. Silently they filed in. She looked around. Luna and Neville were the only ones who had answered the call the previous year, when the school had been attacked. Neville was gone now. She didn't really like the idea of charging after Harry with only Luna by her side. There were twenty people there now. But would they come when it really counted?

"Maybe you can guess why we're here," she said, once the door had been closed. "I want to start up the D. A. again. And this time it's more important than just passing the NEWTS."

Most of the assembled were seventh year students. They looked at her with blank faces. She didn't know a lot of their names. Luna was the only other sixth year.

"Harry, Hermione, and my brother Ron are out there fighting right now. Harry doesn't want our help. He doesn't think we can help, but he's wrong. Last year the school was attacked, and maybe if we were ready, if more of us had come when the call went out, we might have saved the Headmaster. We're only fooling ourselves to say it won't happen again. I know the Ministry has helped put up more security for the school, but there are as many Death Eaters in the Ministry as there are Aurors. We need to be able to defend this place and everyone we care about."

"You think this little club will do any good?" Seamus asked. "We're practicing blocks and stunners and they're practicing murder."

"So we learn better spells," Ginny said. "We practice harder and we get faster. It's like Harry said two years ago, they aren't going to spare you because you can't fight back."

"But we don't have to go looking for trouble," a girl from Ravenclaw said.

"And Harry isn't even here," Zacharias Smith said.

Ginny tried to keep her temper under control.

"It would be good practice for NEWTS," Dean said.

That wasn't really the point, in fact, it was almost the opposite of Ginny's point, but the seventh years started nodding. Ginny supposed it was good enough. If they kept coming, they might come around to seeing things her way.

"I guess I could give some lessons in hand to hand combat," Al volunteered, a bit reluctantly.

A few of the pure blood wizards and witches snorted at Al's offer, but those who had seen Ed take down Harper in the courtyard, looked excited by the prospect.

"So when do we meet?" Dean asked.

Ginny realized he, and everyone else, was looking at her.

"Tuesday night, seven o'clock," she said.

They nodded.

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"_Help yourself."_

The weird words from his dream still echoed in his head. Al still had the ink soaked Tarot card in his pocket. He chewed his lip. He wasn't that dependent on his brother was he? He frowned. Even if he was he could change, couldn't he? He supposed Ginny was right about some things. He couldn't help Ed if he couldn't take care of himself. He intended to have a few surprises for Ed when he returned.

_Or when I catch up with him,_ Al thought.

Al sat on the floor and started sorting through the basket of steel scraps, left over from the transfiguration.

_This used to be me_, he thought, turning the chunks of metal over in his hands. He set a few bits in the circle he'd chalked on the floor. He rolled onto his knees and pressed his hands to the transmutation circle. The steel melted and reformed in a storm of blue light. The glow faded and Al picked up the arm guard he'd made. He held one against his arm to check the length. The steel plate ran from his knuckles to his elbow, with joints at the wrist so it wouldn't inhibit movement.

He took a grease pencil and started tracing transmutation circles onto the backs of the guard. When he was sure they were right, he'd etch them in. He supposed they would be rather like Major Armstrong's gauntlets. He hoped the Major wouldn't be offended to have his technique mimicked.

He put more steel in the circle and transmuted again. This time he made a heavy length of chain with a short handle at one end. He etched a transmutation circle into the handle. He didn't know if that would work, but there was nobody else around to get hurt. He whipped the chain around, focusing on the circle in the handle. Blue light shot up the chain, transmuting the circular links. They sprouted sharp steel thorns and gouged the floor as they struck; unfortunately, the chain then bounced back, heading right toward his face. He dropped the handle and leapt aside.

"That's going to need more practice," Al mumbled.

A cough and shuffling feet drew his attention to the door. There was a boy in uniform standing there. Al recognized him from the night before, Zacharias Smith.

"Headmistress McGonagall wants to talk to you," Smith said.

Al nodded. "Just let me put this stuff away," Al said.

"I think your brother is back," Smith added.

Al dropped the basket and chains and took off running. The school passed by in a blur. He got to the gargoyle that guarded the stairs and shouted rather incoherently at it. It slid aside and Al sprinted up the moving staircase. He knocked once and then pushed open the office door.

He saw the back of a blond head with braided hair in the chair that faced McGonagall's desk. Even before the boy in the chair turned, Al knew something was wrong.

"That's not my brother!" Al said, dropping back into a fighting stance.

"We are already aware of that, Mr. Elric," McGonagall said.

"Hu?"

The boy in the chair looked a lot like Ed, same face, same eyes, the right absence of height, but whoever it was impersonating Ed, they were wearing the features all wrong. Even the scowl was wrong.

"Your older brother has very grudgingly allowed another to borrow his identity. This is Draco Malfoy."

"Hello?" Al said.

The boy called Draco only scowled at him.

"Mr. Malfoy was present when you were brought over," McGonagall said.

Al frowned. "You know how the Alchemy cylinder works?" Al asked.

The boy wearing Ed's face shook his head. "I was only there when it was turned on."

"But he will give you all the information he has on the subject, and he will assist you in any way he can," the stern woman said.

Al got the feeling she was reminding Malfoy as well as informing him.

"Mr. Malfoy will be confined to the hospital wing, and will only be allowed to leave that area of the castle with my permission, under supervision. His presence here must remain a secret, or his life will be forfeit. Do you understand, Mr. Elric?"

Al nodded.

"I would greatly appreciate it if you would maintain the fiction that this is your brother," she said. "Are you willing to do that?"

Al looked between the stranger and the woman who was currently supplying him with food, shelter, and research material. He looked at the boy again.

"For how long?" Al asked.

"I do not know," the woman replied.

Al frowned. "I guess if brother said it was alright…"

Al cut himself off as he realized what he was saying.

"Good," McGonagall said. "Would you please escort Mr. Malfoy to the hospital wing? Madam Pomfrey has already been alerted to the situation."

Al nodded and the boy stood up. In awkward silence they walked down the steps. Most of the students were in class, so no one was around to overhear their conversations.

"How do you know my brother?" Al asked.

The other boy glared. "He dislocated my shoulder and broke my front teeth."

"Oh," Al said. "Did you call him short or something?"

Draco glared again. They got back to the hospital wing. The nurse was at her desk. She smiled at Al and glared daggers at the boy pretending to be his brother. Al finished picking up the weapons he'd been constructing and showed Draco into his room. Before Al could say anything about the cylinder, the other boy started talking.

"Your brother said you're friends with a lot of serial killers," Draco said.

"Not a lot!" Al objected. "And they weren't all serial killers. I mean Marta is more of mercenary, and Scar…well he sort of had a reason…I mean he isn't a serial killer just because he thought it was fun or something, he had legitimate grievances. It's not like I'm friends with every serial killer I meet. I was never friends with Barry the Chopper!"

"Uh…right," Draco said.

"What brought that up?" Al asked.

"Nothing," Draco said.

There was an awkward silence. Al picked up a notebook and fountain pen from his desk. An owl had arrived with a letter from Kingsley Shacklebolt that morning along with a large pile of photos of the top of the cylinder. It wasn't exactly what he wanted, but it was a place to start.

"So what do you know about the cylinder?" Al asked.

"The muggles who owned the land it was on knew about it. They asked in a researcher to look at it. The researcher happened to be a mudblood, and word got around to the Dark Lord. He sent a few of his servants to inspect it. We couldn't make much of the patterns drawn on it, the loops and things, but there were a few runes around the edge, that said something like 'for life power, for the living change, for death eternity'. There were more runes but we hadn't figured them out yet."

"How did you activate it?" Al asked.

"We put Neville in the center of it."

"You just put him on and it started working?"

"There were a few others before him, but they didn't work."

"What happened to Neville? What was different?"

"We snatched him during a Hogsmeade weekend. He was buying potions ingredients. He put up more of a fight than we expected, more then any of the others. He had some weird cursed thorns in his pocket. Brooke lost an eye to them, Foresythe lost a hand…. Lestrange tortured Neville for six hours, then we put him on the cylinder."

Al stared at the other boy. Malfoy spoke as if nothing was happening, as if the things he was saying were facts, instead of a horrible heartless confession.

"Why Neville and not the others?" Al asked.

"Timing?" Draco suggested. "Maybe no one was on your side when we tried with the other ones."

"It was day when we were pulled in. When we came out, it was night," Al said.

Malfoy shrugged. "I don't know. Your brother thinks you're from another world. Maybe it's different there."

"But even then," Al said. "The balance would be wrong. Neville wasn't big enough to be an equivalent exchange for brother and I. Alchemy doesn't work that way."

Draco shrugged.

"Unless…" Al trailed off. "Unless it wasn't a mass for mass exchange at all."

Al dug through the pile of photographs Mr. Shacklebolt had brought him. He drew out one of the close shots. It looked rather like a soul array if you squinted and held it at an angle.

Maybe Neville hadn't been exchanged in the reaction. Maybe he had been consumed.

Al was still staring at the pictures an hour later. Draco had gone to his own small room in the back of the hospital wing. Al studied the surface array again. It didn't seem to have the paths required for reconstruction of matter. But maybe that was significant. He and Ed had been pulled into the side of the cylinder in their world, and were pushed out the top in this one. Maybe the orientation of the cylinder was as important as the array itself.

He frowned and sat back. One of the first lessons Sensei Izumi had taught them was that an inverted array would give a reaction completely opposite to its original orientation. It couldn't be that simple, could it? Turn it upside down, put some energy into it and step through? Al chewed his lip.

But even if it was that simple, did it require a human life to be sacrificed? He couldn't do that, and he knew his brother couldn't either. Al realized then that even if he figured out how it worked, they might never get home. He needed to see the cylinder. He couldn't take no for an answer.

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The room was cold, but it no longer mattered. They did not have to pamper the snake. It was rotting in Little Hangleton. They in turn, were rotting in a new base.

"I will not accept another failure," the Dark Lord said.

Snape kept his head bowed, and his mouth shut.

"I want the children they brought out of the cylinder. They are both at Hogwarts again. I trust that is not too taxing an assignment for you?"

Snape nodded. "You will have them my Lord."

"Leave," the Dark Lord said.

Snape walked through the caverns, and the few Death Eaters that saw him got out of his way. He went to his potions lab and kicked over the first cauldron he saw. The liquid poured out and etched acidic trails into the stone floor. When the Dark Lord had ordered the cylinder activated, Snape had thought it busy work for the less then useful servants. He knew the Dark Lord didn't expect much to come of it, and he certainly had not expected it to toss new allies into Potter's lap. Of course things never worked out the way they were expected to, especially where prophecies were concerned.

Harper was no longer in a position to help him, but Snape maintained other agents within the school. His mind wandered back to the destruction of the Dark Lord's old home, and Lestrange dead in little pieces. Potter hadn't done that. He wasn't capable. If he did bring those children to the Dark Lord….he might just be rid of his other Master as well.

In the privacy of his lab, he allowed himself a smile.

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**Author's Note**: Don't know if this was the best place for this chapter, but Al was feeling ignored. Sigh! Ed and Harry hog the lime light next chapter. Please review!


	15. Chapter 15

Invert

**By Marz**

**Chapter 15: Last Minute Delay**

Ed had been to the ocean in Amestris with Al. But that water was clear and blue and calm. This ocean was so different. The water was gray and huge waves struck the rocky coast, rattling the ground they stood on. Ed looked back over his shoulder at the trailer. He supposed it was parked far enough away from the cliffs. He knew he wouldn't sleep well that night.

The sun went down and only a faint greenish-yellow band across the hills behind them hinted that it had ever been. The water went from gray to black. A white bird flew between Ed and the sea, letting out a piteous shriek. He swallowed. Somewhere in all that, there was a roll of paper that they had to find and burn.

Something moved to his right and Ed turned. He saw Harry was looking out over the water as well.

"Dinner's ready!" Hermione called.

They both turned and hurried back towards the trailer. Over Spaghetti O's, hot dogs, and salad, they laid out the plan for the next day. They'd pick up supplies from Diagon Alley in the morning, rent a boat and get some maps from the pier in the nearby harbor, and then they'd head out to sea.

"So what's so great about this scroll?" Ron asked. "Why didn't **He** think Dumbledore would destroy it? I mean, what about that ring? Dumbledore took the bit of soul out of that, didn't he?"

"I doubt Voldemort knew he could do that," Harry pointed out.

"If he could, I wonder why he didn't leave that information around somewhere," Hermione said.

"It wasn't like he knew he was going to die," Harry said.

Hermione frowned. "I think maybe he did know, Harry. Why else would he insist you learn all about Voldemort so quickly?"

Harry frowned. "If he knew, he'd have left more information. If he knew what was going to happen, he wouldn't have let it!"

Hermione waved her hands, placating. "Alright, I just think something is off. Dumbledore did lose quite a bit of his arm messing with that ring. Maybe he thought it was too dangerous for us to try."

Ed looked up from his O's. "If it was so dangerous, why would he risk it? If smashing the cup and tearing up the book was enough, why bother? Was the ring that great?"

Harry shook his head. "Maybe he knew about the scroll and wanted to save it."

"But he never mentioned the scroll to you," Ed said.

Harry shrugged.

They agreed to turn in early and rolled out their sleeping bags, (except for Hermione, who got the only bed in the trailer.) Ed stared at the ceiling as the wind rocked the trailer. An hour passed. He could tell no one else was sleeping either. He turned the lights back on and nobody complained. Hermione picked up an old copy of the _Prophet_. Harry and Ron started playing chess. Ed picked up a 'muggle' magazine Hermione had bought when they stopped for gas, and looked at the pictures of airplanes.

**Flights to Sydney starting at 8oo pounds.**

He looked at the strange tube with little wings on the sides. He still didn't know how it could stay in the air. He flipped through the pages and saw other strange things. Pills for depression and moodiness. Pills that kept cats and dogs from getting fleas. Pills to make you skinny. Pills for almost everything. He wondered if there were pills to make your commanding officer less of an annoying bastard. He flipped through more glossy pages.

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Harry wasn't really focused on the game. Ed's comments were gnawing their way to the front of his brain. Why would Dumbledore try to save the ring? He'd worn it like a trophy, and that seemed rather out of character for the ancient man. Was he planning to save one of the other Horcruxes? If he was, why wouldn't he mention it? Hermione started muttering to herself, and Harry was grateful for the distraction.

"What is it?" Ron demanded, as it started interrupting his sound beating of Harry at chess.

"I need a seven-letter word for funeral rite," Hermione said, holding up the crossword from _The Prophet_.

"Obsequy," Ed said.

Hermione's eyes widened for a moment, and Harry thought she looked rather guilty. "Thanks," she said.

" Obse-what?" Ron asked.

"Obsequy," Ed said. "A funeral rite or ceremony, in subservience to the will of the deceased."

"Where'd you pick that up?" Harry asked the blond boy, who hadn't bothered to look up from his magazine.

Hermione was ducking even closer to her crossword.

"I have no idea," Ed said, suddenly very suspicious.

"Hermione?" Harry asked.

"What?"

"What did you do?"

"Nothing!"

"You haven't been doing anything to help Ed learn words faster, have you?" Harry asked.

A vein stood out in Ed's forehead.

"It was just a little Babel serum," she said in a small voice.

Ron snorted.

"You've been slipping me potions? For how long?" Ed demanded.

"Since you refused the translation spell at Order Headquarters. It was just Babel serum. It isn't dangerous."

"How…that's…" Ed trailed off into a growl.

"It was just hard to understand you, and if you were going to get by, you had to learn English," she said, her voice rising.

Harry didn't know why she thought talking higher would make her point more convincing.

"Did you think I was too stupid to learn your language on my own?" Ed demanded.

"I didn't think that. I was just trying to help! I didn't think it would do any harm if you didn't know!"

"OH!" Ed shouted. "Well, that's fine, then! It's perfectly alright to slip people drugs as long as they don't know!"

"He has a point," Harry said.

"Why are you picking on me?" Hermione said, turning on him. "You do the same thing!"

Ed turned his glare on Harry.

"Hey, I don't slip people potions!" Harry found himself shouting back. "Ron only thought I did, and that was for a good reason."

"You're being unreasonable!" Hermione said in an even shriller voice.

"EVERYBODY SHUT IT!" Ron bellowed in a voice that made the window rattle. "If anyone should be shouting for no reason, it should be me!" he added. "Harry, stop picking fights because you're nervous. Hermione, apologize. Ed, get over it."

For a long moment they all stared at each other.

"I'm going," Ed growled.

He stomped out of the trailer, slamming the door. A ceramic frog fell from a shelf and shattered.

"At least he didn't punch anyone," Ron said. "He hits really hard for a little guy."

A rock hit the side window of the trailer, cracking the pane.

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Ed sat on the edge of the cliff, telling himself he wasn't cold enough to go back inside. The wind pulled at his coat and he hunched down further, pushing his hair out of his face. He thought maybe the water would be less unnerving if he couldn't see it, but it wasn't. He could see lights drifting by on the horizon, probably boats. A high layer of clouds blocked out the stars.

"What am I doing here?" Ed wondered, staring into the blackness.

He couldn't shake the feeling that something out there knew he was coming and was waiting to swallow him up. And once he was out there, he'd be dependent on some crappy little boat and a group of teenagers he didn't really trust.

_I got them out of the mess they made at the Riddle Mansion; maybe that's enough to balance things,_ he thought. _Al needs me back, anyway. He's probably sitting around in a corner, pouting. Or collecting cats_. Ed frowned. His stomach was turning. He ran his hand over his face.

It felt wrong to just leave. It wasn't his problem, but he couldn't just go. There was the additional problem of finding his way back to Al. He didn't really know where the wizard school was, and the majority of people in this world wouldn't be able to tell him where it was.

"Ed?" called Harry. "Are you out here?"

Ed considered scrunching down in the scrubby grass to hide, but sighed and got up.

"Over here," he said.

"Are you still mad?" Harry asked.

"What do you think?" Ed growled.

"Just checking," Harry said, obviously nervous. "She was trying to help," he added.

"I'm going to help her into a bloody nose if she tries that crap again," Ed muttered.

"I think that's a bit out of hand," Harry said.

"I meant to say that in my own language," Ed growled. "I don't know if I even speak it anymore! I'm going home. I won't need your stupid words then!"

Harry raised his hands, placating. "I don't think it erased other things," Harry said. "Try focusing on somebody who you would speak to in your language. That's what I do when I get my languages mixed up."

Ed focused on a memory of Winry's face. "You crazy machine junkie!"

"See, it worked. I have no idea what a "dois wetow aeor skije" is," Harry said.

Ed nodded. He supposed it wasn't that bad. "I'm still not eating anything she cooks ever again."

Harry nodded. "I guess that's fair. You can always open your oven cans of spaghetti."

"What other language do you speak?" Ed asked, as they started walking back to the trailer.

Harry clenched his jaw and let out a horrible hissing noise that made the hair on the back of Ed's neck stand up.

"What the hell?" Ed demanded.

"Parseltongue," Harry said a bit proudly. "It's a snake language."

"Snakes don't talk," Ed said.

"Maybe not to you."

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Hermione ducked her head as she followed the boys through Diagon Alley. They'd come in through the Leaky Cauldron under notice-me-not charms. Ron had pulled down a "Wanted for Questioning" poster with a picture of him, Harry and herself. Hermione repressed the urge to hiss at him as he proudly stuffed it in his pocket.

"They actually spelled my name right!" he'd whispered to her.

Ed's head was covered by the hood of his borrowed black cloak. He still wasn't talking to her. She'd tried to get Harry to talk to him for her. He said he'd tried and she'd just have to wait Ed out. She watched their reflections in the closed shop windows as they passed. Weasley Wizard Wheezes wasn't open yet either, but Fred let them in when they knocked on the door. The curtains were all closed, and the shop looked forbidding and dim.

"What's the pass word?" Fred demanded.

"There is no password," Harry said.

"Correct!" Fred declared. "So what brings you future felons to my honest and upright place of business?"

"What are you going on about?" Ron asked.

"There are Aurors stopping by every few hours to see if you're in," Fred said. "If I tell you all to hide in the trunk behind the counter, don't stop to have a fit alright? We don't need to loose our business license. Now what do you need?"

"I've made a list," Hermione said.

She fished it out of her pocket and handed it over.

"Nice penmanship as always," Fred said, nodding thoughtfully.

**Potions**

**1) Sea Demon repellent (or Gillman's anti-charm)**

**2) Forever Flame**

**3) Aberforth's All-Purpose Healing Salve**

**4) Gilly syrup or Gillyweed**

**5) Mermish translation potion**

**Charms**

**1) Unexposed Dark Detectors**

**2) Shark lures**

**3) A Mer-lure**

"Going swimming?" Fred asked as he finished going over it.

"Hope not," Ed said.

"We haven't got any of this stuff in stock," Fred said. "Except for the Dark Detectors. I'll run to the apothecary, and the Potion Emporium when George gets here, but I think we'll need Mundungus for the charms. Mer-lures are very illegal. You're not going mermaid hunting are you?"

"Of course not," Hermione said.

"What are you doing?" Fred asked.

"If we told you we'd have to kill you," Ed said boredly.

Fred rolled his eyes. "No cliché's in my shop please."

A shadow passed across the door and someone tapped the glass.

"We're open at ten," Fred called. "Watch shop is down the block if you need help with that!"

The shadow moved on. Hermione realized she had pulled her wand without thinking. Fred gave her a questioning look. She shrugged and put it away.

"We've got something else you might be interested in," Fred said.

He went into the back room, and returned with several shoeboxes. They were labeled on the side in drippy ink: Beach-in-a-Box, Quicksand-in-a-box, and Swamp-in-a-box.

"You might remember the last one from our little demonstration under the rule of Umbridge," Fred said. "She's still getting strings pulled so we can't sell any of these kits outright. Can you believe she got them classified as muggle-baiting devices? Anyway, you lot might find a use for them."

"Thanks," Harry said.

Hermione shifted her feet. "How long until George gets here?" she asked.

"Maybe half an hour," Fred said. "You've got somewhere to be?"

"If this is going to take a while I'm going to find a phone and call my parents," she said. "It's my dad's Birthday."

"Ron should go with you," Harry said.

"I'll be fine on my own," she insisted.

"But-" Ron stared to say.

"Lestrange," Hermione spat out, not even sure why she said it.

Ron paled. "Are you sure?"

She nodded. "I'll only be a few minutes."

Hermione turned and hurried out of the shop. There were more people in Diagon Alley now. She felt as if they were all looking at her. She rubbed her hands together. They still felt sticky and foul. _I'm Lady MacBeth_, she thought. She'd considered saying it Ron, but he wouldn't understand. He'd been very opposed to her suggestions to read classic "muggle" literature. She fought the urge to rub at her face as she rushed through the Leaky Cauldron and back into the muggle streets.

She hadn't meant to kill Lestrange. Not really. She hadn't had a plan when she'd changed. She just knew she had to do something. The instincts of her animagus form had just taken over. She rubbed her hands together again.

She couldn't blame everything on that though. She'd been doing other things she wasn't proud of, things she'd box Ron's ears for suggesting. She'd slipped Ed a language potion, and she'd been lying, lying, lying. To McGonagall, to the Order, to her parents, even to Harry and Ron. It was justified. It was completely reasonable and logical. It was still wrong.

She didn't know how far she'd walked, but a phone came into her field of view and she stopped. The receiver had gum on it, but there was dial tone. Hermione put a few coins in, dialed the number, and listened to the rings. She had a lot to say but she was almost hoping for the answering machine. Her mother picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey mum, its me."

"Hermione? Why aren't you in school? The caller I.D. says London."

_I killed a woman, mum._

"Well mum…I…er…I skipped class today."

"Does that mean you'll be here?" Mrs. Granger asked. "I hoped the letter would get to you in time. I know you trust those birds, but I didn't think it would get there."

_She was an awful person._

"Oh. I was actually hoping to talk to dad, tell him Happy Birthday, you know," Hermione said.

"Don't do that!" her mother said. "We're all pretending we forgot. You got him something normal, didn't you? I mean we've invited his friends and a lot of them don't know about your…unorthodox educational path."

_She would have killed me._

"Oh. Yes, of course mum. I got him…a…watch," Hermione said.

"That's…nice dear. Are you inviting that young man, Ronald? He knows not to do anything strange right? I suppose that other boy is with you, Harold? He's welcome too. "

_I had blood in my mouth. I'd knocked her down. I could have stopped then._

"Yes mum." It was starting to sink in then, that she was expected to attend a surprise party. She wanted to give some excuse, but her mind had gone numb. "We…we might be a little late," she added.

"That's fine. As long as you're here."

She knew her mother was smiling on the other end of the line. She was probably looking relieved.

"I will be mum," Hermione said. She opened her mouth to say what she wanted to say. It wouldn't come out. Her mother spoke again.

"Alright. Goodbye dear. Be good. Love you."

_I killed somebody mum._

"Love you too. Bye mum," Hermione said.

She hung up the phone and fought the urge to cry.

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They left WWW with only a few boxes. The twins were fairly certain they could get the rest of the stuff from Mundungus that night. Hermione insisted they stop at Flourish and Blots to pick up a few volumes on sea demons. Harry was worried purchasing such books would draw attention to their target, so they ended up buying two dozen other books on monsters, hexes, and history to make their choices appear more general.

Hermione dragged Ron off for a "walk" as soon as they apparated back to the trailer.

"She's up to something," Harry muttered.

"What?" Ed asked.

"I think she's trying to talk Ron into something," Harry said.

Ed shrugged so violently his automail clanked. He picked up one of the books from the pile they had just bought and sat down on Hermione's bed, propping up his dirty boots on her pillow. Harry wanted to say something, but kept his mouth shut. He picked up a book of his own and started reading up on Kelpies.

"There's more on that scroll in this book," Ed said after half an hour of awkward silence.

"What?" Harry asked leaning over.

"Not where it is or anything," Ed said. "It just says 'Ravenclaw's spell scroll was rumored to contain numerous potions now lost to modern wizardry including 'The Flight', 'The Sight', and 'The Night', potions which supposedly allowed the user to fly with no external aids, see a short ways into the future, and become a living shadow, respectively,'"

"Hmmmm," Harry said, rereading the lines over Ed's shoulder. "I don't know if I've ever seen Voldemort do any of that."

"Maybe he never had the scroll. Maybe that invisible dead guy was wrong," Ed said.

"He wasn't invisible," Harry said.

"But if he doesn't have those potions, maybe he never had the scroll. This could all be another wild goose chase."

Harry shrugged. "We haven't got anything else to work with."

Ed rolled his eyes and turned the page.

Hermione returned with a stubborn expression on her face and Ron in tow.

"My Dad's having a birthday party tonight and I think we should go," she announced.

That was not what Harry expected to hear.

"Fred and George won't have our equipment until tomorrow any way," Hermione pointed out.

"What if Voldemort sends people to your parent's house to get to you?" Harry said.

"What if he does?" Hermione argued. "If I'm not there who'll protect them?"

"We should be researching," Harry argued. "We don't have time."

"We won't have to cook," Ron said, as if he had rehearsed his line.

"Alright," Harry said. "You two go. Ed and I will catch up on research."

"But if they do attack," Ron said. "We might need help."

"Won't our apparating in draw attention?" Harry asked. "Your house isn't shielded like the trailer is."

"We can apparate a few miles away and take the muggle bus," Ron said.

"Besides," Hermione said, "All the people wandering in and out, who don't live there, will disrupt the wards, and I'll have to reset them anyway. You might as well get some cake and crisps and things."

"Why are you so hung up on this?" Harry asked.

"I just want to visit my parent's alright? Is there something wrong with that?" She demanded a bit shrilly.

Harry looked at Ed, who was pretending he couldn't hear them, in a very mature fashion.

Harry sighed.

"How long will we be there?"

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**Author's Note:** A fight scene had to be bumped to the next chapter. This was originally going to be one chapter, but then it got ridiculously long. The other half will be posted later this week. Don't forget to review. (And Happy Turkey Day!)


	16. Chapter 16

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 16: Distractions**

It was a very large house. Not nearly as big as the Riddle House that Ed had so recently knocked down, but it was nothing to sneeze at, either. The architecture was odd as well, three asymmetrical stories tall with overlapping angled roofs. There was a large yard with a lot of winter-bared shrubs. The lawn was too green for winter, and when Ed leaned in closer to inspect it, he realized the grass was fake.

"It saves water," Hermione said, when she saw him looking.

"Wow," said Ron in a small voice as he bent down to inspect the artificial turf as well.

"Well, don't stand there all day!" Hermione said, sounding rather embarrassed.

She led them up to the porch. They could hear music and loud talking inside. Hermione pressed the button by the door and the bell rang. A large woman in a large red sweater answered the door. She had a huge cloud of bushy brown hair that was barely contained by a red Alice band.

"Hermione, dear!" the woman said.

"Hello, Aunt Ceilia," she said, rather nervously.

The woman looked to Ed, Ron, and Harry. "And who are all these young men?" she asked.

"Oh…uh…these are my friends from school. They gave me a ride down for the party."

"Well come in! Come in! Your mother's in the kitchen. Go say hello!"

They were ushered inside. The living room was packed with middle-aged people chatting, laughing and spilling drinks on the thick beige carpet. They passed through, drawing only a few curious stares. Then it was through two more halls, past a parlor, a study and a dining room--all of which were crowded with people--and finally into the kitchen.

"Hello, mum," Hermione said.

"Hermione! You made it!" Mrs. Granger declared.

"Hermione?" a tall balding man with a droopy basset-hound-like face asked.

"Hello, Dr. Walton," Hermione said.

"You can call me Mike, now. I mean, you're all grown up!"

Harry, Ron, and Ed stood awkwardly as they were introduced. Several attempts were made to relieve Ed of the coat and mittens he was wearing to hide his automail, but his scowl drove the helpful people off. After ten minutes of nerve-wracking conversation, Hermione's mother presented a route of escape.

"All the young people are in the backyard," Mrs. Granger said. "They're afraid the old will rub off on them, you know. Your cousins from Greenwich are here. You remember Beth and David, don't you? And Marci brought her little ones. Oh, and Judith's daughters came. Go say hello!"

They walked through another few halls, and found their way to the aforementioned yard. Ed looked at the other subadults. There was an eight-year-old girl with a plate of snacks. She seemed to be licking the topping off of some orange vegetables and then putting the vegetables back on the plate. There was a boy of about ten with a little gray box that was emitting flashing lights as he pressed buttons on the side. There was a small group of teenagers, three girls and a boy. They seemed just about the opposite of the group he was with. The two gangs sized each other up.

"Your mum said you were bringing a boyfriend," one of the girls called. "Couldn't make up your mind?"

"Hello, Beth. These are my friends from school, Harry, Ed, and Ron," Hermione said, seeming less than thrilled to see her cousin.

"From your expensive school that no one has ever heard of?" the girl named Beth challenged.

"That's the one," Harry said, as he saw Hermione getting flustered.

"You've dropped out, haven't you?" another girl said.

"I have not!" Hermione declared a bit shrilly.

"Have too."

It took about thirty more seconds for name calling to ensue.

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He sat in the living room, looking out the window at the party down the block. More muggles arrived every minute, many bearing gifts and platters of food. He adjusted his cloak and pushed the curtains open a bit further, and adjusted his omnioculars. Smiling faintly, he picked up his mirror, and whispered a name into the surface.

"Are they there?" a voice demanded.

No image appeared on the glass.

"They just arrived--Potter, Weasley, the muggleborn, and that blond boy," he replied.

"The blond boy? Are you sure? I was told he was at the school."

"I'm sure," he answered.

"This may get that interfering old woman out of the way as well. Can you contain the muggles?"

"Yes," he said. "Potter and his crew probably won't put up much of a fight with all those muggles around. I don't think we'll need-"

"I think we will. After what happened at the Riddle House, we can't afford to take chances."

"But ma'am, we don't know if we can control them."

"They won't be a problem," she replied. "I've done this before."

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Ron watched the muggles wandering around. He'd never been surrounded by this many un-magical people. He'd walked down busy streets, of course, but he wasn't expected to talk to those people. Here, though…

"So you go to school with Hermione?" the elderly woman asked.

Ron couldn't remember if she was a grandmother or aunt or what. He just nodded, and stuffed a few more crisps into his mouth to avoid any other reply. He looked around nervously as a few more people walked by talking about removable DVR drives. He wondered what sort of car that was.

Harry and Ed had disappeared, but Hermione was still in the room and every once in a while she would look over at him and give him a look that clearly said "you cannot leave". Ron sighed. He supposed he had to get used to this. If he and Hermione were going to get married, he'd have to learn how to be muggle. Of course, her recent actions made him wonder if she still intended to get hitched.

He'd asked her, a few days before his brother Bill's wedding. She said it was romantic of him to ask. She also said no. She had all these reasons to go with her no, they were too young, they had no jobs, they were fighting an evil overlord and probably wouldn't survive the coming battles. He had tried to explain that he hadn't meant right that second, but she just kept saying no. And in the months since then, she'd shut down every other attempt he'd made to bring the subject up. He didn't really know what to do. He thought girls were supposed to say yes and make plans, or no and leave you. He supposed he could ask his mother the next time he saw her. If he died of awkwardness, he wouldn't have to worry about it.

Ron ate a few more crisps and kept nodding.

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Hermione watched the room with a sense of dread. She felt she would scream if she didn't say something soon, but her mother was busy talking to the guests and passing around snacks and smiling and Hermione couldn't make herself drag her mother away from all that to share her burden. She'd told them she was still at Hogwarts. If she told her mother what happened, they would know she had lied. They'd want her to come home, and she couldn't, and it would just make things worse. She didn't know why she made the others come. She could see Ron on the other side of the room looking miserable.

_It might be the last time I see them_, she thought.

She thought that every time she saw them, though. She felt like she had to say everything before she left, but she never could. She'd left letters in her safety deposit box. That would have to be enough.

"What have you been up to?" asked her uncle William.

"Oh," she said. "Nothing much. Just studying and applying for University, maybe a summer internship somewhere."

"You need to get out more," William said. "Spending all your time with books will ruin your eyesight. You need to get out and have a few adventures! When I was your age…"

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Harry saw an opportunity and he took it. The second floor bathroom window led out onto the roof. It was slanted, but Harry wasn't too worried about falling. He crawled out onto the shingles and away from the lights of the party. He climbed to the peak of the roof and was about to climb down the other side when he saw he wasn't alone.

Ed was sitting on the roof, as well, looking surly. _Another member of the orphan angst club_, Harry thought. He wondered if hanging around other people's happy families made him feel as out of place as it did Harry. Ron had been getting by alright with Hermione's kin, but when you've enough family to populate its own country, it seemed a do or die kind of adaptation. _Other people being happy shouldn't make me miserable, should it?_ he wondered.

"You're hiding too, hu?" Harry asked.

Ed nodded. The sounds of the party echoed around them. 60's and 70's music rattled the windows. Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out the M&M's he had liberated from a tray in the kitchen. With a nod of thanks, Ed took a few.

"How much longer are we here for?" Ed asked.

"Don't know," Harry said. "Hermione's currently surrounded by people asking her what university she's going to attend, and Hermione's mum has Ron cornered."

Ed snorted. "Parents," he grumbled.

"Yeah," Harry said.

"Do you remember yours?" Ed asked.

"Hu?"

"Your parents…do you remember them?"

Harry shook his head. "I never even knew what they looked like until I was eleven and saw a picture."

"Oh."

"Why?" Harry asked.

Ed shrugged. "I don't remember my mom as well as I used to. I used to think…"

"What?"

"Never mind."

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_Stupid Hermione._ _Stupid family. Stupid everything, _Ed thought.

All this talk about futures and family was making him think about Al and the family he didn't have. It all vanished so easily. Winry's family was killed by the people who asked for their help. Ed's father abandoned them. Their mother was struck down by a disease that no one ever understood. Tucker destroyed his own family. Nina...and the wall spattered with blood.

"Nina…" he mumbled.

"Did you say something?" Harry asked.

Ed shook his head, trying to focus. "No."

He tried to push the image of that bloody wall out of his mind, but it stuck. He looked around the roof, trying to focus on something else, but everything was foggy around the edges. The blood on the wall gave way to blood on the street, the man Scar had killed in front of him and then the thing, inside out on the basement floor. It looked just enough like his mother to drive all other thoughts from his mind.

"Mom…"

"Ed, what is it?" Harry demanded.

"Nothing," Ed said, rubbing at his face. "It's just…cold all of a sudden."

Ed shuddered. It felt like he'd been dipped in freezing water and his head was coming apart. Harry said something else, but Ed couldn't focus enough to hear him.

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Harry wondered if all the family stuff was getting to Ed. He looked like he might start to cry. He mumbled something that sounded like 'mom'. Then Harry felt it too, a cold that could sink into the warmest room. The sounds of the party were fading, and confused mumbling was taking their place. He almost sighed in relief when he realized they were being stalked by Dementors.

Harry drew his wand. "Expecto Patronum," he hissed.

He was trying not to draw attention; maybe that was why all he got was silver smoke. Smoke seemed to be enough, though. The fog settling over his mind cleared away, and Ed shook himself. The cold wasn't gone, but the confusing swarm of jumbled memories subsided.

"Dementors," Harry said.

"Read about them," Ed muttered, rubbing at his face. "Was I saying anything out loud?"

"Not really," Harry lied.

Harry stood up, searching the surroundings for drifting black figures. Instead, he saw several people in cloaks, moving along the street a few hundred yards away. He pointed them out to Ed, who kept an eye on them while Harry continued to search the sky and yards around the Granger household. He crawled up to the peak of the roof and looked over, finally spotting what looked like a flapping scrap of cloth in the trees in a neighbor's yard. He couldn't hear it breathing over the sounds of the party, but he shivered at the imagined sound. In the back of his head, he heard shrieks. He knew there were other Dementors around that he hadn't spotted. He wondered how long it would take for the people inside to notice.

He crept back to Ed, who was crouched on the edge of the roof, prepared to spring and balancing only by holding onto the rain-gutter between the toes of his boots. The men in cloaks were moving across the lawns, but their heads were down. Harry supposed they hadn't noticed him and Ed on the roof.

"We have to lead them away from the party," Harry whispered.

"How do you know they'll follow us?" Ed asked.

"We'll have to make sure they see us. Besides, Dementors really like me," Harry said grimly.

Harry pulled a mirror from his pocket, but Ron and Hermione failed to respond to his calls. Frustrated, he smashed the dark detector he'd been wearing. It wouldn't tell his friends what was going on, but it might set off the other dark detectors they carried without his having to cast a spell.

"Where are we going?" Ed asked.

Harry tried not to growl in frustration. He shook his head, trying to stay focused.

"There's a children's park around here somewhere. Hermione said it was downhill from her house. It's an open space, and there probably aren't any kids there this late at night."

Ed nodded, and waved an arm, silently implying "after you." Harry swung out onto the drain-spout and slid down into the garden. Ed hopped down after him. They sprinted around the house and pushed open the gate. One of the men in cloaks shouted something as he saw them run out into the street, but the pounding of their feet against the sidewalk and the music from the party covered his words. They got to the end of the block and headed down the hill. Harry looked up and saw several sheets of black cloth whipping around above them.

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Getting angry was Ed's usual reaction to emotionally intense situations, and this time was no different. He didn't appreciate memories of his mother's failed resurrection being dragged up, and he was looking forward to taking it out on someone. Even if Harry couldn't fight worth a damn without a wand, he was a fast enough runner. He was three yards ahead and pulling away more with each step. They got to the end of another block and Ed saw the park Harry had mentioned. It was shrouded in trees and a collection of metal climbing structures jutted out from a fenced-in pile of wood chips.

As Ed jumped the fence, long cold fingers snatched at his ankle. He pulled loose, but stumbled and fell. His arm stung and he saw a flash of light as he bounced, rolled, and stopped suddenly as his head hit a support for the monkey bars. He was more than a little stunned, but he got back to his feet and brought up his arms, blinking as blood dripped into his eye.

"Where is it?" Ed called out to Harry.

"Run!" Harry shouted back.

"Run where?" Ed growled.

It suddenly became very dark. The park faded and flashes of his failed transmutation played out in front of his eyes. Only brief glimpses of the park were still getting through to his brain. Cold wet cloth brushed against him and the shouting in his head went up another notch. He tried to move away, but stumbled into another cold wet thing that snatched at him. He tried to call to Harry for help, but only a garbled wail escaped his mouth.

His knees gave out and he put up his hands, blindly trying to fend off his attackers. All he could see was that thing on the basement floor twitching. He heard wheezing breaths, and he couldn't tell if they were coming from the invisible creatures surrounding him or the one in his memory. A hand brushed his face and he slapped it away with his automail arm.

A blinding light came between him and his unseen attackers and the cold feeling vanished. The light circled around and Ed got to his feet. He saw Harry's arm stretched out, his wand pointed to direct the light. Ed stared, realizing the conjured light was actually the deer Harry had used to send a message a few weeks ago.

Suddenly Harry ducked as a red light flew over him. Ed whirled. The men in cloaks had caught up to them and were moving in behind Harry. Ed clapped his hands together and transmuted his right arm into a blade. He charged.

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Harry was going to ask Ed if he needed help, but as the shorter teenager charged past him, he realized it was unnecessary. The man in the robes collapsed as Ed's foot slammed into his stomach. Ed grabbed the front of the man's clothes and rolled back, flipping him into the man who was sneaking up behind him. He leapt over another blasting hex, clapped his hands and slammed them down. The monkey bars twisted in a shower of blue sparks, forming claws that grabbed another of their attackers.

Harry saw the Dementors were hovering a few hundred yards away and well off the ground. An iridescent stag circled them, tossing its head and stamping its feet. Harry hoped the Patronus wouldn't fade while he was busy fighting more solid targets.

Harry ducked as the hair on his neck stood up. A sudden acrid puff of smoke from the ground behind him let him know he'd barely dodged a silently cast hex. He saw a squat figure trying to sneak away into the manicured trees behind the playground. He cast a binding spell and conjured ropes enveloped the fleeing figure, knocking him to the ground. A man was running past a slide, and Harry took him down with a stunner to the back. Something landed in the wood chips near him. Harry supposed it was another stray hex. He turned, looking for whoever had shot it at him.

The ground under his feet bucked and Harry jumped up, barely catching the cross bar of a swing set. He struggled to do a pull up as a coil of Devil's snare sprang out of the ground. The plant snatched at his ankles and he kicked wildly until he was safely atop the bar. Harry turned on his perch and saw the man who'd thrown the plant aiming at him. Harry dropped backwards, catching the chain from the swing with one hand as he fired off a stunning hex with the other. His aim was completely off, but his opponent was surprised enough to miss his own shot. Harry's opponent raised his wand to disapparate and Harry stunned him. Harry fried the Devil's snare with a burst of light. He looked over and saw Ed finishing off another man in a cloak with a savage blow to the head.

"Is that all of them?" Harry asked.

"I think so," Ed said.

Harry circled the park, but nothing else jumped out at him.

"They aren't wearing skull masks," Ed called.

"What?" Harry asked.

"They don't have the skull masks," Ed said. "Or the arm marks that Draco Mayfly kid had."

Harry ran to the nearest downed man. He didn't have a Death Eater's mask, or the Dark mark. Harry hit him with a binding spell and moved to the next one. None bore Voldemort's insignia. He came to the squat figure, who had been trying to get away through the trees. He rolled the struggling figure over with his foot and stopped short.

"You are under arrest for attacking Ministry officials! Release me at once!" shrieked an artificially high female voice.

"Umbridge?" Harry asked.

"Who?" Ed asked, walking over.

"She does work for the Ministry. She tried to have me murdered two years ago, and then tried to have me arrested for defending myself."

"Oh," Ed said. "So do we leave her here for the Dementors?"

"You wouldn't dare!" she shrieked. "I am a Ministry official! I am a junior undersecretary to the Minister of Magic! You'll spend the rest of your lives in Azkaban for this!"

Harry hit Umbridge with a silencing charm, and then turned away, to take in the scene. They'd made quite a mess.

"Now what?" Ed asked.

Harry turned back. He noticed blood running down Ed's arm. "What happened?" he asked.

"What?" Ed said.

"Your elbow," he said, pointing.

Ed turned his arm to look. He hissed. "It didn't hurt until you mentioned it," he grumbled.

Harry handed him a handkerchief. He went through his pockets, and realized most everything else had fallen out while he was running. His two-way mirror was gone. His wallet was gone. His gum was gone. He realized he very badly wanted his gum.

"Should we leave them here?" Ed asked, forcing Harry to pay attention.

"We might as well get this settled," Harry said.

He bent down and searched the pockets of Umbridge's cloak until he found a mirror.

"I don't think she was acting under orders," Harry said. "If we threaten to take this to the press it will make the Ministry look very…bad. I think maybe we can use this."

"If she wasn't ordered here," Ed pointed out. "It could be one of those officially unofficial things. We have a lot of those where I come from."

"I think I'll risk it," Harry said. "If you want to go…"

Ed didn't respond.

"Rufus Scrimgeour," Harry said.

The mirror clouded for a long moment, then an unfamiliar face appeared. It was a witch with penciled-in eyebrows and too much rouge.

"The Minister is busy, Ms. Umbridge," she said.

"Not Ms. Umbridge," Harry pointed out.

The witch started. "This is her mirror."

"I noticed," Harry said. "I need to speak with the Minister."

"He's busy," the witch said.

"Too busy for murder?" Harry asked.

"What? Whose murder?" the witch asked.

"Mine," Harry said.

He turned the mirror so she could see the bound Ministry workers and the Dementors Harry's Patronus had corralled.

"I…." she trailed off.

"I really do need to know if this attempt on my life was sanctioned," Harry said. "I think I may have to file a complaint, as well as a newspaper article."

"I'll get the Minister. Just don't…do…anything!"

The witch got up and the mirror went blank.

"Are they coming?" Ed asked, lifting the handkerchief to check his elbow.

"Probably," Harry said. "Are you certain you want to hang around? They might just arrest us."

"If they try something, you'll need me to help make a scene," Ed said.

"I guess. You are pretty loud for someone so shor-…blond?" Harry corrected himself as Ed turned a death glare on him.

"You aren't that much taller than me!" Ed growled. "And most of the difference is that crazy stuck-up hair, anyway!"

Harry shrugged.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The playground rattled as the Minister and a dozen Aurors appeared around them. The Dementors tried to flee again, but the Patronus charged into their path. The Aurors were looking between the creatures, the bound Ministry employees and the two teenagers. Scrimgeour looked ready to explode. Everyone in a thirty-foot radius could hear his teeth grinding.

"Secure the area," the Minister ordered.

The Aurors fanned out, giving the corralled Dementors a wide berth. The Minister stormed up to the fat woman, still bound in conjured ropes.

"Potter, what….? Dolores?" he demanded, looking back and forth between them.

"He was resisting arrest!" Umbridge shrieked. "He attacked us. He assaulted Ministry personnel!"

"Dementors are working for the Ministry again?" Harry asked.

"Shut it!" the Minister demanded. "Why are you here, Ms. Umbridge?" he asked.

Harry was slightly relieved that they were no longer on a first name basis. Umbridge seemed to mentally gather herself. She puffed up a bit, straining against her bonds.

"I've had Potter's muggleborn friend's home under observation. It had quite a few unsanctioned wards around it, so we weren't able to pick up much before today. The large number of people passing through the wards disrupted them enough for us to detect the arrival of several wizards. I knew it was them. I assembled a team to take Potter and his gang into custody."

"Were all the Aurors busy?" Harry asked.

Ed snorted, and the Minister glared at them, but he didn't brush the question off. Umbridge glared as she realized she was meant to answer.

"I didn't expect Potter and his gang to attack us," she said.

"So you show up in black robes without identifying yourself and you expect the welcome mat rolled out?" Harry demanded.

"And those creepy invisible freaks," Ed added.

"Who are you?" the Minister demanded, apparently just noticing Ed.

"Who wants to know?" Ed replied sullenly.

"I'm the Minister of Magic! And you'd better adjust your attitude if want to stay out of prison. Identify yourself."

"Edward Elric," Ed said. "The Fullmetal Alchemist," he added, since these people seemed to like titles.

"What does that mean?" the Minister demanded.

"It means I don't give a crap if you are the ruler of this back-assward country," Ed said, maintaining a volume just slightly greater then the Minister's. "Are you going to get rid of this crazy pile of…undersecretary or are we going to have to? Seems like we're doing everything else around here, anyway. Harry, get to the blackmail already."

The Minister turned to glare at Harry, who had lost a bit of steam when his rant was interrupted by Ed's rant.

"It's like this," Harry said. "It would reflect rather badly on you if it were to get out that you were sending Dementors after people…"

"It's hard to spread rumors when you're in Azkaban," the Minister growled.

Ed snorted.

"The point is you know we're working against Voldemort," Harry said. "And it's all well and good that you want to be seen keeping order, but if you get in our way, you're helping him. We don't have time for your P.R. crap. Get rid of Umbridge, get rid of the Dementors, and get rid of the wanted posters, and we'll forget this whole thing."

"You can't possibly-" Umbridge started to shriek.

The Minister flicked his wand and hit her with a silencing charm.

"We may be able to work something out," Scrimegeour allowed.

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"I think you should have asked for more from him," Ed said, as they walked out of the park.

Harry shrugged. "I don't expect he'll actually do the things he said. It isn't as if we have it in writing. He'll be busy hiding the evidence that this ever happened, though, and that will keep him out of the way for a while."

Ed nodded. They passed a shattered bit of glass that Harry realized was his mirror. He kicked the shards into the storm drain. They'd have to get a new set from Fred and George tomorrow, or wait until they got back. The sounds of the party reached them again, and they slowed down.

"Is that your wallet?" Ed asked.

Harry saw where he was looking, and picked it up with relief. A few feet further away was his pack of gum. He grabbed that up, too. He pulled out a stick and offered a piece to Ed, but the other boy shook his head.

"Party wasn't as boring as I thought it would be," Ed said as they walked to the porch again.

Harry snorted with laughter, and inhaled his gum.

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**Author's note**: For the next chapter, bring your Dramamine! And don't forget to review!


	17. Chapter 17

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 17: The Sea**

Ed poked through the crate. There were bottles of rubbery pickled plants, glass orbs that glowed faintly, small vials of black liquid, bundles of cloth tied shut with wire, a bell with runes around the outside, a lump of wax with pins and fishhooks stuck in it, and assorted moldering books. He could see sealed boxes in the bottom of the crate, but knew he probably shouldn't open them. He looked over at Ron, sitting a bit further down the dock, next to the cooler of food and their backpacks. The taller boy was staring into space.

Ed heard the thunk, thunk, thunk of boots on the loose wooden boards as Hermione arrived with keys hanging from a puffy yellow tag.

"It's number twenty-three," she announced. "Ron, can you help Harry? He's up at the office with the rest of the stuff we rented. Ed, can you get the crate?"

The boys nodded. Hermione grabbed the end of the cooler and started dragging it across the planks. Ed followed her. He wondered what spells they had used to convince the owner of the boat to rent it to them. If _he_ owned it, he certainly wouldn't have. Maybe it had a hole in the bottom. His thoughts went from doomed to only mildly pessimistic as they turned down another row and Hermione pointed rather dramatically.

Ed supposed it was a decent boat. It was twenty five feet long with a boxy structure in the back, which he supposed was the engine. It was cleaner than the other boats around it, and made of a shiny white substance that Ed at first thought was porcelain until he rapped his knuckles on it.

"Fiberglass," Hermione said.

Ed didn't know where to start with the questions, so he only nodded. Hermione climbed shakily into the bow, caught her foot on a rope, and fell face first onto the deck.

"You alright?" Ed asked, glad she couldn't see his smirk.

"Yes," she said, getting up. "Hand me the cooler," she ordered with great affected dignity.

He passed her the cooler and the crate, but wouldn't climb into the craft himself, despite Hermione's insistence that it was perfectly safe. Ed looked at the boat and then at his automail limbs.

"This won't end well," he muttered to himself.

"Don't worry," Ron said rather sarcastically, as he walked up the dock. "They gave us all these."

He tossed Ed a lumpy pile of orange cushions, held together by grungy white straps. They smelled slightly worse then a wet dog.

"What?" Ed asked, baffled.

"Here," Hermione said, taking the cushions from Ed.

There was a flurry of knots, clips and straps. For at least ten seconds, Ed was certain the girl was trying to strangle him. Then she stepped back to observe.

"It's a lifejacket," she declared.

Ed looked at the orange cushions and was not nearly convinced. Ron was smirking until Hermione started attaching cushions to him. Ed felt slightly better. Even if the smelly 'lifejacket' looked bad on him, it looked completely absurd on Ron, who was obviously much too large for the jacket they provided. It looked more like he was wearing a lumpy scarf. Hermione then put on her own jacket with great dignity, and slapped Ron and Ed's hands whenever they tried to take theirs off.

Harry returned shortly after with the gas cans. He was smirking slightly. He was wearing a sort of puffy orange vest, that looked…like a vest.

"That's just not fair," Ron said. "Why does he get the normal one?"

"It wouldn't have fit you," Hermione pointed out. "Or me."

"It would have fit me," Ed grumbled. "I'm small enough."

As soon as the words left Ed's mouth he had a small fit of apoplexy. When it was over, Hermione patted him on the shoulder, and they finished loading the boat.

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Harry looked over the gear one last time. He couldn't think of any last minute things to add. That morning, when he'd gone to pick up their order from the twins, he had almost called the whole thing off. Fred, who had figured out what they were up to, in general if not specifically, had included a few books that Harry hadn't even thought to ask for. Harry had paged through one volume, _The Depths_, which was basically a history of sea monster attacks around the British Isles. The book mentioned that Wizards were more likely to be attacked by magical sealife than muggles were because many sea demons could detect magic from some distance off, and seemed to think it tasted good.

"Everyone ready?" Harry asked.

"Yes."

"Yeah."

"Whatever."

Harry turned the key and the motor roared and gurgled. It was much louder than he expected, but he supposed there wasn't much he could do about it. He didn't want to go back for a different one. They had used an "Of course" charm on the man in the rental office. It wasn't exactly mind control, but it made the clerk overlook the fact that Hermione was not over twenty-five and that her credit card had a five hundred pound maximum, which obviously would not cover the cost of the boat if it was not returned.

He pushed the throttle up and the boat bobbed away from the dock, leaving a cloud of gasoline vapor and a cloudy wake behind. He played around with the steering a bit and then headed for the buoys marked 5KPH.

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Ed hugged the vest against him. Outside the harbor they picked up speed and the boat started to bounce across the waves. Ed felt very nauseous. He didn't know why. Cars and trains never gave him motion sickness. He looked over at Hermione and from her expression, he could tell she was feeling the same. Ron was kneeling in the bow of the boat, grinning like a dog as the spray splashed over him.

"Are we headed the right way?" Harry asked, from behind the wheel.

He also seemed completely immune to the rocking and jarring of the boat. Hermione checked her compass and the GPS box she had rented from the store.

"Turn a bit more North," she said, pointing.

They'd packed lunch, but Ed did not feel like eating. He felt like un-eating in fact. He lay down on the floor of the bouncing boat, wrapped his arms around his head, and closed his eyes. He swallowed convulsively.

"Does that help?" Hermione asked in a shaky voice.

"A little," Ed said.

A moment later she was on the floor next to him.

They spent the entire morning and most of the afternoon bouncing across the water. Land had vanished behind them and appeared in front, but they turned away from it. They passed several large tanker ships. Ed was a bit stunned. He'd never even imagined boats could get that big. He never imagined anything like the ocean. They traveled all day and seemed to have gone nowhere. He supposed that was ironic, or something.

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The sun dropped rapidly. The water turned orange and the sky blazed red. Harry shut down the engine, and they drifted along, the world suddenly much too quiet. Hermione brought out the map she had been working on and the three wizards examined it in the fading light.

"I think we're here," she said, pointing to the outer edge of the area she had marked off as mystically active.

She'd been looking over records of shipping traffic and found areas where technology would fail and whole craft would vanish without a trace. A footnote on the chart referred to reports of electronic interference in the area, although no reason for the interference was listed in the warnings. She'd used Arithmancy to draw out circles of theoretical sources for the interference. The focus of the circles was 54 degrees north, 4 degrees east.

"Maybe we should stop out here for the night," she said.

"We can turn on the light in the front," Harry said. "The sooner we're done, the sooner we can go back."

"That won't do us much good if we run into something," Hermione said. "Besides which, the GPS is acting a bit strangely. I think we may end up losing it to magical interference and the engine as well, if we go much further. I would rather that happen while it's light out."

"I'm not crazy about sleeping out here," Ron said. "Can't we anchor the boat, disapparate home and then come back tomorrow during the day?"

"It would draw too much attention, and the anchor won't touch bottom anyway," Harry said. "The boat would drift and we might never find it."

"I'll take last watch," Ed said, apparently unable to get up off the deck.

"Maybe we should have packed a sea sickness potion," Ron said.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," Ed replied.

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Clouds had rolled over them, blocking out the stars and wrapping the boat up in nothingness above and below. They had turned off all the lights, to avoid attracting attention. Ron sat in the bow with his wand clenched in his fist, looking back and forth over the featureless water. He listened to the slap of water against the sides and struggled to stay awake. He still had two more hours before he could wake Hermione up to take over as lookout. He had considered just letting her sleep, and staying up all night himself, but he was tired, and she would probably accuse him of being sexist instead of thanking him for being a good boyfriend. He was thinking about turning on one of the little flashlights so he could read something when the sound of the water against the boat changed. The light slaps of water were replaced by large splashes, and the boat tipped very noticeably back and forth, as something large passed by.

_Of course the weird stuff would happen on my watch_, Ron thought grumbling.

He looked around for another boat, but there were no lights on the water. He supposed it could have been someone else running without lights on, but he didn't hear an engine, so it was probably an animal. He swallowed. Maybe it was a whale. He stood up slowly and tilted his head. If it was a whale, it would make spritzing sound when it took a breath, wouldn't it? Something very solid bumped the boat and Ron was thrown from his feet, knocking his chin against the railing.

"What?" Ed shouted, as he was jolted from sleep.

"SHHH!" Ron hissed back.

He crept back toward the rear of the boat, shaking Harry and Hermione awake. They both regained consciousness more quietly than Ed.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Don't know," Ron said. "But it's big."

The boat rocked as another creature bumped it.

"Should we risk a light?" Ed asked.

"Hang on," Hermione said. "I want to try something."

They all sat nervously as Hermione whispered and muttered. "Hand me that jacket," she ordered.

Ron didn't know who she was talking to, but she said 'thank you' a moment later, so he supposed someone had gotten it for her. She hunched down with the cloth over her wand and her head to hide the light from the spell. Cloth rustled again.

"Oh dear," she said.

"What?" Ed asked.

"Here," she said, putting the jacket over his head. "It's a night vision spell. Can you see, now?"

Ed nodded and Harry and Ron were spelled next. Ron looked out at the water and bit back a curse. Everything was glowing and fuzzy at the edges, but he could see. There were huge lumpy things in the water around them, surfacing and sinking, as large as the oil tankers they had passed earlier in the day, but eerily quiet. One came up a few yards away, and they could all see its lumpy, wrinkled skin, as if it had sat too long in the bath. Ron was fairly certain sea creatures weren't supposed to end up like that. He couldn't figure out where the head was on the animals, but he didn't really want to see it, either.

"What are they?" Ron whispered.

"Leviathans," Hermione said. "They're sea monsters, but they aren't commonly found near the surface, or in water this shallow."

"What do they eat?" Ron whispered.

Hermione frowned. "There haven't been any reliably documented sightings in the past thousand years-"

"They eat people, don't they?" Ron asked.

"And small boats, and whales," Hermione added.

"Wonderful," Ed said.

"I think if we hang the Sea Demon repellent over the sides of the boat, they should leave us alone," Hermione said.

"Alright," Ron said.

They stumbled around the cluttered deck, trying to find the repellent without breaking everything else in the supply crate. They fished out the small sacks tied shut with wire and hung them from railings around the side of the boat. The sacks just touched the water. The water around them grew cloudy and slightly phosphorescent.

"How do we know if they're working?" Ron asked, as the huge creatures continued to circle around them.

"I suppose we'll just have to wait and see," Hermione said.

One of the Leviathans surfaced in front of them, finally revealing its head. It looked rather like a salamander that was in the process of melting--a two hundred foot long, melting salamander. Its cavernous, gummy mouth opened, allowing sea water to pour in. The boat drifted towards it. Ron clenched his wand, ready to disapparate. Suddenly the flow of water turned around and they were pushed away, the boat bobbing and spinning in the churned water. The mouth shut with an echoing slap and the creature sank below the surface again.

"Oh, my. I guess that's how," Hermione said shakily.

"How long do the repellents last?" Ed asked.

"I don't know," Hermione said.

"Wonderful," Ed said again.

"Could you be a bit less sarcastic?" Hermione asked tiredly.

"We're #$ed," said Ed. "There, I was being sincere."

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When dawn finally came, they were all nervous, exhausted and blinded. Hermione eventually took the night vision spell off of them, though Ed had come unpleasantly close to falling off the boat. The morning sea was free of Leviathans, but there was now a haze over the water, limiting visibility. Hermione checked her GPS, but the machine seemed incapable of getting a signal. The compass still worked though, so they headed North and East, in the hopes that they hadn't drifted too far off course during the night.

Ed curled up on the deck again, still nauseous, and now his head was killing him as well. He had come to the conclusion that he hated the ocean. When this was over, he would see about draining it. He never wanted to see water again, except in small bottles. He was still plotting his revenge against geography when the engine sputtered and shrieked. Smoke poured from it and Harry turned it off with a panicked jerk of the keys.

"What is it?" Ed asked as the others crowded around the engine, blocking his view.

"It's clogged with seaweed," Hermione said, reaching into the water to pull a strand of leathery plant life off of the propeller. She leaned further over the side to grab another clump.

"Wait," Harry said, pulling her back. "I don't think you should put your hand in there. Something's not right."

Ron was looking around now, too.

"I don't see any plants in the water around us," Ron said. "We can't have just run over the only plant in the whole region."

"We're still moving," Ed pointed out. "There's a current."

"What's that?" Ron asked, pointing ahead of them.

Huge structures rose from the water ahead of them, jutting out of the mist. The dull glint from not quite rusted metal reflected the weak sunlight.

"Those are oil rigs," Hermione said, as she fished Omnioculars out of a crate. "They look abandoned," she said, adjusting the lenses.

Ed nodded. He heard the waves lapping against the boat. His headache seemed to be lessening. Below the sound of the water he heard something else. It was a sort of humming. They were drifting faster now. There was a pattern in the humming and Ed started to hum along. He was starting to feel very relaxed when cold wet things were stuffed into both of his ears. He turned and was about to punch, when he saw Hermione stuffing blobs of wax into Harry's ears as well. The other boy had been slumping in his chair, but jerked upright…as if something gross had just been shoved into his ears.

"Siren's Song," Hermione said, as she pinched more wax off the lump from the crate and shoved it into Ron's ears.

Ed was rather surprised that he could hear her so clearly.

"The wax has a potion in it. It only filters them out. Ron, don't pick at it," she added.

"Where…" Ed cut himself off as they drifted past one of the rigs.

He saw why they were abandoned.

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Harry frowned as they drifted towards the rusting steel structures. There was a woman clinging to support struts, upper body exposed. She was rocking back and forth and waving her arms at the boat. Something about the woman didn't look quite right, other then her being in the middle of the ocean with no clothes on.

"She doesn't have a mouth," Ed asked. "How is she singing?"

Harry wondered how he had missed that, and tried to focus on Hermione's dull textbook voice as she explained.

"The real mouths are under the water," Hermione said. "See those little pod-like things around the waist? Just above the surface? Those are the real eyes." She adjusted her Omnioculars. "Ah! There's one completely out of the water."

The boys turned to look. There was a woman higher on the rig, or at least half a woman. Her arms waved to them, but below the waist was a writhing mass of tentacles. As "she" started to sing, the tentacles shifted, revealing several fanged mouths.

"That is much creepier than a Veela," Ron said.

"I've read that you can cut the top half completely off without causing the Siren any permanent harm," Hermione added.

"Are they in the open water, too?" Ed asked, drumming his fingers nervously on his automail arm.

"They could be," Hermione said. "But the repellents should keep them away from the boat. They're physiologically similar to-"

SPLOOSH!

They whirled to see a ripple in the water and an empty seat in the bow of the boat where Ron had been. Harry cursed, cast a bubble charm over his face, and leapt in after him. The life vest brought him right back to the surface, and he struggled out of it, diving again.

The water was murky, but a silent lumos charm cut through it. Red streaks and bubbles floated up around Harry and he kicked downwards. A flash of light helped him orient himself. Ron was tangled in the tentacles of one of the sirens, and his leg was bleeding badly. Ron was trying to curse the creature, but its flailing limbs kept knocking off his aim.

Harry looked around and saw other sirens coming towards them through the water, tentacles pumping like jellyfish with the woman-like lures swinging around like drunkards in the front.

Harry grabbed Ron's free hand and sent a blasting hex into the center of the mass of tentacles. The creature let go and he pulled Ron up. Ron was obviously running out of air, but a bubble charm had to be cast before one entered the water. They kicked towards the surface, Harry pulling more and more weight as Ron's oxygen-deprived limbs slowed. Harry paused to fire a few hexes at the sirens, but it didn't seem to scare them off. They were going to get between them and the boat. Something dropped through the water next to him and sank past in a trail of bubbles. Suddenly the water was filled with a horrible shrieking that made Harry feel as if his teeth were about to explode.

He looked around and saw the Sirens were now drifting motionlessly. He kept kicking. He surfaced by the engine and Hermione and Ed dragged Ron into the boat. Harry struggled over the side on his own.

As Harry tried to catch his breath, Ed leaned over the back of the boat, tearing up strips of sea weed to free the propellers.

"Go!" Ed shouted. "Go! Go! It's clear!"

Hermione threw herself behind the wheel and started the engine. The boat tilted up sharply as she accelerated and Harry had to catch one of their supply crates as they hit a wave and it nearly bounced overboard. The rigs flew by on either side of them. Harry crawled across the deck to grab the first aid kit. He supposed this wasn't an entirely bad sign. The creepier things got, the closer they got to the Horcrux.

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The needle of the compass spun in pointless circles. Hermione tried another "point me" charm, but her wand spun without direction as well. It had taken about an hour for the adrenaline from the Siren attack to wear off, and when it did, she realized she had no idea where she was driving. She had throttled back the boat to check her maps, only to find that none of their gear could tell them where they were. Harry, Ron, and Ed seemed similarly confused.

"When night falls," she finally suggested, "We can use the stars to find north and go from there."

"I don't want to spend another night out here," Ron said.

Harry nodded. The bite Ron had from the Siren didn't seem so bad once they'd cleaned it up and bandaged it, but he was covered in red welts from where the creature's tentacles had touched him. Harry had a few welts on his ankle from where the creature had brushed him. He didn't know how Ron could stand it. The redhead's face and hands were swollen and for a while he seemed to have trouble breathing. Hermione had given him a potion and it seemed to have relieved his lungs, but they couldn't seem to find a way to treat the welts.

Ed suggested peeing on them, as he had heard somewhere that it worked for jellyfish stings. It turned out that it did not work for Siren stings, but the process of figuring out what and where and who should stop looking at who was so complicated that it did a lot to relieve tension in the boat, if not welts.

"Maybe we can ask directions," Hermione suggested.

The three boys gawked at her.

"We have the Mer-lure, and the translation potion," Hermione said. "We could take in the repellents and…maybe one of them will answer us."

"Or they'll sink the boat," Ron said.

"The mermaids in the lake…" Harry began.

"-have a treaty with the Ministry of Magic and the headmaster of Hogwarts," Hermione said. "They don't attack wizards and wizards keep muggles away from them. It's different out here, since there are no treaties, but I don't think it's likely that the mermaids in this area would ally themselves with Voldemort. He's the one who summoned all the water demons into the area, after all."

"They'll know a wizard brought the demons in," Ron said. "They might not know it was him."

Ed sighed. "Do we have any other options at this point?"

Harry ticked them off on his fingers. "Ask, wait for dark, or head back to land. I say we ask."

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They hung the lure, and waited two hours. It was starting to look as if sunset would reach them first when a webbed hand reached up out of the water, and snatched at the lure they had on a stand in the bow. Hermione nearly dropped the translation potion when she saw it. She gulped the liquid down and staggered toward the lure. Harry and Ron had their wands out and Ed was peering into the water around them, with his hands an inch apart. Hermione opened her mouth and spoke. The three boys flinched back, trying to cover their ears and keep their wands aimed. To Hermione's ears, it sounded like normal speech.

"Hello?" she called. "Can you hear me? Can I ask you a few questions?"

The webbed hand that was reaching up for the lure stopped, and instead grabbed the railing. The boat tilted slightly as the mermaid pulled herself up out of the water.

"What do you want?" the mermaid hissed.

She was even less human looking than the mermaids from the lake. Her sharp teeth were crooked and stuck passed her black lips even when her mouth closed. A yellow membrane flicked back and forth across her black, shark-like eyes and her gills fluttered, revealing barbs under the delicate layers of tissue. The only clothing she wore was a sort of belt from which hung a rusted knife, several other bits of scrap metal, and a couple of shark egg sacks. Her scaly skin was a camouflage of purple, green and gray.

"What do you want?" she repeated, not seeming even the slightest bit afraid.

"We were wondering if you had seen a…a wizard building in the water near here," Hermione said as coolly as she could.

"There is a cave, filled with drowned but not dead landwalkers. It is an old place, where once we were welcome, but now it only waits. The old say a serpent put death there. Is that what you seek?" the mermaid asked.

As the mermaid spoke, she looked past Hermione at the boys in the boat. Most of her focus settled on Ed.

"That sounds about right," Hermione said. "Can you take us there?"

"What is in it for me?" the mermaid asked, not taking her eyes off Ed.

"What do you want?" Hermione asked nervously.

"Him," the mermaid said. "And the shiny thing that called me here."

"The lure is all yours, but Ed isn't…for sale."

"He's not a wizard," the mermaid said tilting her head, but not looking away from Ed, who seemed paralyzed by her attention. "What's he good for if he's not magic? I'll keep him cold, he won't rot or get old like things in the sun do. When all the air is gone, I'll sew his mouth shut, to keep the crawlers out. Pretty eyes, gold hair…"

"Ed's not for sale," Hermione repeated. "If you like gold, we've got some coins you could have-"

The mermaid hissed, cutting her off. "That gold wasn't living, it's not the same."

"We aren't going to do anything that harms him," Hermione said forcefully. "He's one of us."

The mermaid hissed again and slapped her tail against the water, splashing Hermione a bit.

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The Sirens were so monstrous they could be dismissed, but the mermaid's obvious intelligence disturbed Ed much more deeply. She wasn't like a chimera from his world, an animal and a human spliced together overshadowing one part with the other. She was blended so well she could have been natural. Maybe she was.

"She wants your hair," Hermione said, interrupting his thoughts.

"What?" Ed said.

"She knows where a wizard building is, guarded by Inferi under the water. What she described sounds like what we want. She'll take us there in exchange for your hair now and the mer-lure, when we get there."

"What's she want my hair for?" he asked.

"She thinks it's pretty," Hermione said, rather embarrassed. "I talked her down quite a bit."

Harry and Ron started to smirk, and Ed turned a death glare on them.

"Please, Ed," Hermione said. "It will grow back."

"Why don't you give her your hair?" Ed asked, crossing his arms.

"She doesn't want it," Hermione said, frustrated.

Ed glared. "Can't you just transfigure something for her?"

Hermione sighed, turned back to the mermaid and shrieked. The mermaid slapped her tail against the water again.

"She says 'no'," Hermione translated. "I don't know if you've read much about mermaids, but they are rather picky and obsessive. Listen, if it will make you feel better, I'll cut my hair too, but the only one she asked for is yours."

Ed growled again. He supposed it was some kind of vanity. He'd given up limbs for people. Hair shouldn't count for that much. He frowned and took a pair of scissors out of the toolbox. If the fish woman swam off without showing them where the building was, he swore he'd be transmuting a harpoon.

He was lifting the scissors toward the hair when the mermaid shrieked again.

"What now?" Ed demanded.

Hermione and the mermaid shrieked back and forth for a few minutes.

"She wants to cut it herself," Hermione eventually said.

Ed looked at the fish woman for a long moment. "How do you know she isn't just going to drag me over the side?"

"We just went over that. I told her we had a tracking charm on you and we'd follow her down, and call in more wizards. I also told her if she tried to pluck out your eyes there'd be just as much trouble."

"For the record, I don't like this," Ed said as he handed over the scissors.

Snip!

The braid came neatly off. Ed thought he might be able to get away with just that, but the mermaid hissed and jerked him around, apparently after his bangs as well.

Snip! Snip! Snip! Snip!

Ed tried to block it out, the cold metal tapping against his scalp and the cold hands dripping water onto his face and neck.

Snip! Snip! Snip! Snip!

He was fighting the urge to yell "I am not a sheep!" and push her off the boat.

She paused for a moment to stuff the strands into the shark egg sack hanging from her belt. She hissed something in his ear and then went back to cutting. Even without a mirror Ed knew it was going to be the most unfortunate haircut ever. His head felt cold and he knew he was blushing like a maniac. Harry was looking sympathetic, but Ed could tell that Ron was struggling not to laugh. The mermaid finally stopped clipping and handed the scissors to Hermione, rather then him. Ed stepped away. The mermaid was still staring at him. Ed made shooing motions.

"Tell her to get going already," Ed demanded.

Hermione and the fish woman shrieked at each other some more, and then the mermaid slipped back into the water. She swam out in front of the boat, visible just below the surface. Harry turned on the engine and they puttered after her.

Ed took a scarf from the one of the bags. He didn't care whose it was. He rapped it around his head, and glared at anyone who looked in his direction. Hermione sat down near him.

"I did try to get her to take gold instead," she tried to explain.

Ed shrugged. "Whatever."

"When we get back, I'll make you a potion so it grows back faster," she said.

Ed shrugged. The mermaid turned and Harry steered after her.

"Was she…hitting on me?" Ed asked, quietly, giving Ron a death glare as the other boy started to smirk at him.

"Sort of," Hermione said. "She wanted to drown you, freeze you, and put your corpse on display."

"That is not even close to 'sort of'," Ed said.

Hermione shrugged, and crawled to the back of the boat to look over their gear again.

"We've passed an apparition ward." Hermione said, as she held up one of the dark detectors.

"We're close," Harry agreed, nodding.

They followed the mermaid for an hour, mostly east. Finally she took a sharp turn, leading them to a fog bank that sprang up far too quickly to be natural. She slowed and Harry cut the engine. The mermaid pulled herself up on the bow again, then.

"It's there," she shrieked, pointing.

Through the fog they saw what at first seemed to be a solitary block of stone sticking up from the water's surface. They drifted closer, and saw the stone was hollowed out on one side, revealing a staircase. If it weren't in the middle of the ocean it would have looked rather like mausoleum. Little waves splashed over the edge cascading down the steps into the dark. The water echoed and splashed as it fell.

Hermione pulled the lure from its stand and handed it to the mermaid. The mermaid looked at Ed rather wistfully and then let go of the boat. There was the faintest of splashes, and then a long silence.

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**Author's Note:** I tried to avoid over done sea monsters. I was sort of thinking The _Odyssey_ with a little bit of Hans Christian Anderson's _The Little Mermaid _thrown in. I had to fight off a kraken with a pointy stick as it tried to get into the chapter. I figured everyone was tired of squid. Hopefully everything turned out. The Leviathans are based on Hellbender Salamanders, buy the way. Those things are creepy, but in an endearing sort of way.

Don't forget to review!

**Author's Christmas/ Festivus Greeting/ Apology:** Sorry about the forever long wait on the update. I had a bunch of holiday stuff to do. There was nearly a tree related amputation, but I think we've broken the cycle of Christmas emergency room visits. Damn! I think I just jinxed the hell out of everything. Anyway Feliz Navidad!


	18. Chapter 18

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 18: Deeper Trouble**

The two wizards, the witch and the Alchemist drifted to the edge of the steps and their boat bumped against the side of the small stone building. They all winced at the loud grating sound. They drifted towards the building again, but Ed shoved one of the inflatable bumpers in the way. He looked at the wizards, but they just stood frozen. He tried not to growl. Ed pulled the anchor out of under one of the seats.

"Is there anything…any magical stuff in the stairwell?" Ed asked.

Hermione shook herself and walked to the edge of the boat, raising her wand. She frowned for a moment and then waved the thin piece of wood, muttering.

"It's clear now. It was just a detection spell," she said.

Ed nodded and pitched the anchor into the stairwell. It bounced and clanked until the rope went taut.

"Are we going or not?" Ed asked, tightening the scarf around his head.

Harry swallowed and nodded. He grabbed a few things from the crates and climbed over the side of the boat, dropping to the steps. He mumbled "lumos" and held his wand out. The stairs led straight down a tunnel that seemed endless in the dim light. Water splashed over the steps and cascaded down, echoing in the narrow space. The smooth stone walls contained no handholds. Harry slipped a little as he turned to look at them.

"That's a lot of stairs," Ron grumbled as he started to climb out, his injured leg shaking.

"You should guard the boat," Harry said.

Ron looked ready to strangle him. "I can walk," he growled.

"Not well," Harry said sternly. "Besides, we don't know what else could come up out of this water, and if it takes the boat, we'll be swimming to the edge of the disapparation wards. That's not something I look forward to."

Ed watched the exchange and frowned. He thought Ron would pitch a fit, but the other boy just turned rather pale. "I can walk," he repeated.

"We'll yell if we need help," Harry said. "Come on," he waved to Ed and Hermione.

They climbed over the side, and Harry started down the steps, not looking back. Ed pulled a flashlight from the toolbox, and, after a few seconds of thought, the emergency flares as well. Hermione grabbed a handful of dark detectors, hung them around her neck, and followed.

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Harry wished he'd brought an extra jacket, or maybe galoshes. The seawater had already soaked his trainers and socks and was now wicking up his pants towards his knees. The steps went straight down for about a hundred yards and then began to spiral through a slightly larger tunnel. There were no railings, and despite his blasé attitude toward heights, even Harry felt a bit of vertigo as he looked over the edge. Their wands didn't give any hint as to where the bottom was. Water poured over the sides, and drips and splashes echoed up. He considered asking Ed to drop a flare over the side to see how far down it went, but pushed the thought away. He didn't want to risk waking something up.

Ed slipped on the steps and fell backwards into Hermione. She pushed him back up.

"We should have brought brooms," Harry muttered.

Ed and Hermione exchanged glances that did not support that idea.

"How much farther?" Ed asked.

The light from the top of the stairs was long gone, and the flashlight was dimming and dying.

"Don't know," Harry said.

Hermione checked her amulets. "Still nothing."

The seawater that was dripping from the steps above was now landing on them, a frigid slimy rain. Harry thought he heard Ed's teeth chattering, but he didn't say anything. If something else was making that noise, he didn't want to know, and if it was Ed, it would probably only irritate him. He wondered how much of this design was Ravenclaw's and how much was Voldemort's. They seemed to have a disturbingly similar taste in dank caverns. They continued down, afraid to talk, listening to the dripping and each other's footsteps. Harry's ears popped, and he tried not to think about how much stone and water was above them. His legs ached from trying to keep his balance on the slick stone, and he wondered how sore he'd be from walking back up when they finally reached the bottom.

"It's flattening out," Ed said. "Anything?"

Hermione checked again. "Nothing I can pick up."

They stopped on the last step, peering into the corridor beyond. It led into another large chamber, from which greenish light poured. Huge gutters ran along the side of the path ahead, taking away the water that splashed down the stairs, as well as a great deal of liquid that was coming from tiny cracks in the walls around them. Hermione looked into the gutters, pointing her flickering light at them.

"I don't think that's water," she said.

"So don't try to drink it," mumbled Ed.

The chamber beyond was filled with pits of liquid, divided by narrow walls of stone, that branched off from the path the three teenagers walked. The liquid from the gutters spilled into the pits. They made Harry think of a beehive, and he struggled to keep back images of huge larvae crawling towards them. He looked up instead. The stone above was covered with thick veins of glowing algae, which supplied the eerie light. The chamber was large and looked like a natural cavern, except for the far wall, which was flat and covered with a relief of the solar system. In the center of the carving was the Earth, and the moon, stars, planets and the sun spun obediently around it.

"I think they have that a bit wrong," Harry said.

"It's from a thousand years ago," Hermione said. "Besides, it's probably meant to be artistic," she added.

She walked along the narrow path, eyes locked on the carvings. Ed and Harry followed more slowly, watching the pools of water.

"Look," Ed ordered, pointing down.

There was a tiny scrap of cloth, wet and almost indistinguishable from the stone, sticking out from the seam where the carved wall met the floor.

"There must be something behind it," Hermione said.

"Must be," Harry parroted, relieved that they wouldn't have to look in the pits.

"I think it's a puzzle," Hermione declared, waving at the relief.

"We don't have time for puzzles," Ed said.

He clapped his hands together and pressed them to the wall. Blue light shot through the stone and cracks formed, but an instant later they healed themselves. Ed let go and stepped back, hands going to his head.

"What the hell?" he muttered.

Ed clapped and tried again. The light was twice as bright, but the stone healed before they could even look through the hole he'd made.

"It won't transmute," Ed said. "There's some kind of overlapping energy matrix…"

Harry nodded blankly. "I guess we can't cheat."

Plip!

With all the other running water in the room, the small sound shouldn't have drawn Ed's attention, but it did. He turned. There were other people on the walkway. Only they weren't really people. Their faces were slack and expressionless. Their mouths hung open, gaping, but they drew no breath. At the front of the group was a woman in a ragged dress with her hair still done up in a bun. She lurched toward them. Her soaked sweater was sliding off her body, but she didn't seem to care. Ed felt as if something in his head had clamped shut. The creatures looked at them; their foggy sunken eyes tracked as Hermione moved closer to Harry and Ed brought up his hands.

_They aren't human. They're just something somebody made. _Ed told himself. They weren't nearly as bad as the Homunculi, who for the most part seemed like real people until they tried to kill you. _At least these ones aren't talking. And they don't look like anyone I know. _Ed clapped his hands, forming a blade from the cover plate on his right arm.

"They're Inferi. Cutting doesn't stop them," Harry murmured. "They don't feel it. You have to burn them."

Ed nodded, but his mind whirled uncertainly. He didn't exactly have much fire on him, except for the wimpy little emergency flares. The creatures began to shuffle forward, and more crawled out of the pits all around them.

"Hermione?" Harry asked. "Can you solve the puzzle?"

"I don't even understand the question," she said.

"You said the carving was wrong," Ed said. "Maybe you have to make it right."

"I'll try," she said.

As soon as her hands touched the wall, the creatures came forward.

_Scar's trick might be effective, even if blades aren't_, Ed thought.

He clapped his hands and charged. He slammed his palms into the chest of what used to be a woman with her hair in a bun. She flew apart in globs of pale flesh and blue sparks. They had no blood. Ed let out a rather hysterical laugh of relief, unable to stop as another one came at him. He clapped, and it flew apart as well. Another one lunged towards Ed and he kicked it in the face. It tumbled back into one of the pools.

WOOSH!

Ed flinched as a wave of heat passed over his head. A wall of fire drove the creatures back for a moment. Ed saw Harry waving his wand to cast another fire spell. The creatures had already recovered, and were coming at them again.

_At least I don't have to worry about my hair catching fire._

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Hermione pressed her hands to the stone carving of Earth, and against all logic it slid along the wall. For a moment she theorized how this could have been accomplished, but Harry's pained, frustrated growl and Ed's gasping for breath forced her to focus. She pushed Earth out and moved the Sun into the center, and then began arranging the other planets. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, asteroid belt, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto…. She stepped back and looked up.

"Are you done?" Harry demanded.

"I don't know!" she cried. "It still isn't doing anything!"

"The comets!" Harry shouted. "Check if they're in the right place!"

Hermione looked at the carvings again. There were hundreds of little comets. She chewed her lip. Should she arrange them to coincide with the solar geography of Ravenclaw's time, or modern time?

"Ow!"

"I said duck!"

She decided on modern time, and began adjusting the minor details. She thought she had it right. She hadn't looked over her astronomy charts in a week, so she couldn't recall every detail. She chewed her lip. Thinking on her feet wasn't her strong suit. If they'd researched more, she might have come with something prepared, or at least had the right books. She tugged at her hair, trying to recall where Halley's Comet was this year.

_I can do this, _she told herself_. I've seen these charts a thousand times._

"Behind you!"

"Move!"

She tried to block out the shouts of her friends. _This one up, this one out, this one looped inside the orbit…._

"They're coming-"

"I see them! Worry about your own side!"

_This one up, this one behind it…there!_

The wall split open and Hermione rushed through. Ed stumbled after her and Harry came last, still throwing waves of fire out over the Inferi as they shuffled towards them. The wall closed again, catching several of the creatures' outstretched arms, and clipping them off. The limbs fell twitching to the ground as the stone sealed itself with a final rumble.

They looked around. They were in another stone room, completely square and rather boring. It was free of monsters, though. There were numbers carved into the wall, apparently another puzzle. Harry looked frustrated, but Hermione was rather relieved they weren't in a secret cavern designed by Gryffindor. They'd probably have to jump over sharp things or fight a dragon. Math she could do.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"Those are all prime numbers," Ed said, pointing at one column. "But it just sort of trails off, there are no instructions or patterns in it."

Hermione walked up to the wall, peering more closely. She ran her fingers across the stone. Ed was right. The numbers didn't make any sense. Parts of the wall around the numbers were unusually smooth. She waved her wand, casting a quick diagnostic spell, but found nothing. Whatever spell the numbers had been linked to, it wasn't there anymore.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked.

"The rest of the puzzle," Hermione said. "I think it's been removed from the wall. There's nothing here, no way through."

"I guess we could always go back and fight some more zombies," Ed muttered.

"Inferi, not zombies," Hermione corrected.

They glared at the wall for a moment.

"Ed, do you think you could use alchemy to repair the puzzle so we can get through?" Harry asked.

"I could try, but this might be as bad as the other wall. But maybe…if I transmute just the surface layer of stone…or try to reconstruct the original pattern or crystallization… an outline of the original relief might become visible. But it might not work," he warned.

"Might as well try it," Harry said, apparently not understanding much of what Ed had said, anyway.

Hermione crossed her fingers.

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Ed nodded, clapped and pressed his hands to the wall. It glowed for a moment, but even the first few millimeters of stone resisted transmutation, just as the other wall had. Faintly, something behind the wall rumbled. He turned to warn the others, but before he even had his mouth all the way open, the ceiling gave way.

"Oh shit!"

It wasn't a particularly helpful thing to say, but it was all Ed could come up with as the stone above them split and a wall of water crashed down. Hermione was shouting something, but Ed couldn't make out what. Chunks of stone bounced off his head and shoulder, but they weren't big enough to do real damage. They weren't big enough to fit back together and fix the ceiling, either. He thought of freezing the water to plug the hole, but as he raised his hands, the water knocked him off his feet and sent him sliding and tumbling into the wall. His head hit the stone and he saw stars. He tried to get up, but another torrent crashed over him and he got a mouthful of water. He choked and flopped around in the dark. Another rush came at him and pushed him under. He tried to swim to the surface, but his automail dragged him down. Saltwater burned in his nose and throat. He couldn't cough it out. There was nothing around him but water.

Suddenly a hand was grabbing at his head, trying to shove something in his face. He fought and tried to push his attacker away, but his air-starved limbs were starting to go numb. He gasped out the last of his air and something rubbery and slimy was shoved into his mouth. He started to choke and had no choice but to swallow it. His vision was going black, though that wasn't such a loss, since he couldn't see anything but black murky water.

There was a tearing sensation in his throat and his left hand and right foot felt oddly sticky and cramped. He opened his mouth and water rushed in. The burning and dizziness vanished. He saw Harry floating in front of him, his wand glowing. Harry had somehow acquired gills. As Ed gulped in more water, he realized he probably now had them, too. He remembered the weird plant Harry had bought from the twins. Ed kicked off his right shoe, and looked down at his webbed, elongated foot.

He looked around for Hermione and saw her wand light a few feet away. He swam toward her with lopsided strokes. She was not a fish person, though. She had a rather large bubble of air around her head. Ed turned to Harry to complain about getting gills when bubbles were available, but all that came out of his mouth was a mumble.

They spent several rather confused moments pointing and miming, but a clear plan didn't emerge to deal with the wall. Ed thought, frowning. They had to get through it; even if they couldn't say it, they all knew it had to be done. Ed pressed his hands together and then slammed them against the stone. He didn't transmute. That had failed the last time because the wall knew how to repair itself. But it couldn't fix itself if it had nothing to work with. This time he only deconstructed. It would make the wall very unstable, and more of the ceiling was likely to come down on him, but…there wasn't much else he could do.

Harry and Hermione sort of caught on to what he was doing and began blasting away at the dissolving stone, before it could heal itself. The wall cracked and melted as it struggled to keep them out, but Ed kept pouring energy into the reaction, his head spinning and his arms shaking. He'd never come across anything that resisted change so well, not even Greed's armor.

The water around them grew hot, and Ed squeezed his eyes shut, but didn't stop. Suddenly he was tugged forward as their combined efforts ate a hole into the chamber beyond. Water rushed through and dragged Ed with it.

His chin clipped the stone as he tumbled. He got up shakily. The room beyond was filled with stone pillars, and at the far end, Ed saw an altar with a scroll sitting on top of it. He was about to point it out to Hermione and Harry, but he realized he couldn't breathe again. The larger room was filling with water, and Ed dropped to the ground, rather desperately putting his gills into the eight inches of water that had collected on the floor.

A wand tapped him on the back of the head and suddenly water was collecting around his mouth and neck, allowing him to both breathe and stand.

"I adapted a bubble charm," Hermione said. "The gillyweed should wear off in another half hour."

Ed looked over at Harry, who was similarly outfitted.

The soaked teenagers slowly approached the scroll, the water from the flooded chamber now around their knees and rising. Harry and Ed stumbled as their webbed feet caused them to overbalance. Ed hoped they wouldn't have to run anywhere fast in the next few minutes.

Hermione waved her wand back and forth, searching for traps. There was an ankle snare charm around the altar itself, but Hermione cancelled it out before any of them got close enough to trigger it.

"I think it's alright," Hermione said.

"Seems too easy," Harry bubbled.

Ed reached out his automail hand and poked the scroll with one finger. Nothing happened. He picked it up.

"Horcrux?" Ed bubbled.

Hermione cast a few more spells over it. She frowned in confusion, and cast the spells again.

"It is…but…there's…an echo. I think there might be more than one soul in it," she said.

"Burn it," Harry ordered.

They couldn't actually hear the order, but his lips were easy enough to read.

"What if it really does have a bit of Ravenclaw's soul in it too? We can't just-"

"Fine!" Harry mouthed. "We'll take it with us, but we can't stay here."

He took the scroll from Ed's hand. The roll of parchment seemed to melt slightly in Harry's still webbed fingers. For a moment, he looked startled. To his friends he seemed suddenly to blur. Ed reached out to take it back, but Harry suddenly wasn't there any more. The scroll fell back to the altar, bounced once, and rolled itself up a little bit tighter. The remaining teens exchanged horrified glances. The roll of parchment made a strange sound, a sort of shifting pop as if smacking its lips.

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Ron shifted again, trying to find a way to sit that didn't stretch the Siren stings that covered his face and arms. He looked into the stairwell again. The sun was setting and it dyed the fog around them an eerie red. Soon even that would be gone. It would be dark. It would be very dark.

He strained his ears for signs of his returning friends…and Ed. He frowned. He'd been replaced by a kid shorter then Ginny, who couldn't even send him a warning message if they did need help.

_You weren't replaced, _the logical part of his mind insisted_. It makes sense to guard the boat, and your injury would slow everybody down._

He frowned some more and checked his watch, one hour and forty three minutes since they left. If they weren't back by the end of the next hour, he was going down after them. The stupid mermaids could have the damn boat.

There was a shuffling sound and a splash in the stairwell, and then another, and another. Ron choked back the urge to call out. Something about the footsteps did not jive with the 'grumpy teenagers on a quest to save the world' gait he was familiar with. There was a tug on the anchor rope, and the boat drifted towards the steps. Ron leapt forward and untied it from the railing. The boat was still drifting toward the dark stairwell. He stuck his foot over the side and pushed off against the stone, pulling the limb back just as a greenish, twisted hand reached out for him.

"Lumos," Ron muttered.

His wand cast light over hunched figures with slack faces. Water ran from their hair and clothes. The one who had grabbed at his leg lunged toward the boat, but it missed the rail by inches and dropped face first into the water. It sank. Another leapt forward with the same result as the boat drifted further out of reach.

"Inferi," he mumbled.

He bent for a moment to grab an oar from between the seats and paddled a bit so the stairs remained in sight. As he watched, the creatures who had leapt at him appeared again, crawling up the outside of the building to reach the surface of the water. Apparently their breathless bodies weren't buoyant enough to swim after him. They leapt again, and sank.

Harry had told him about running into these things when searching for the locket with Dumbledore. The descriptions had fallen short. Several new enchanted corpses came to the top of the steps, tumbled into the water, and sank. How many could there be? If there are that many up here, then how many were down there with Hermione and Harry? He gritted his teeth as two more leapt at the boat and splashed down.

"Damn it," Ron muttered. "Damn it, damn it, damn it!" he growled and aimed his wand. "Incendio!" he shouted.

The fire blasted down the steps and filled the confined space. An Inferius tumbled off the steps and into the water in flames. He held the spell as long as he was able, feeling the heat wash back over him. When he let up, there wasn't much there. He lit the end of his wand and held it towards the steps. A layer of slimy steaming ash was already being washed back down the steps by the lapping water. He pulled the boat up against the stone and hit it with a sticking charm. Even if it came loose and drifted, he supposed he could summon it back.

_It wasn't like the walking dead are going to drive off in it_, he thought.

Ron, realizing that he may have jinxed himself, summoned the keys from the ignition just in case. Limping and trying not to breathe the smoke, he started down after his friends.

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Ed grunted as the grasping hands of the Inferi forced him to back into the wall. Hermione had suggested they take the scroll and run back to the boat. He had agreed, tying the scroll to his artificial arm, since it didn't seem to trigger the absorbing spell. Now he was starting to reconsider the idea. They'd made it through the flooded chamber without too many problems, but there seemed to be an endless crowd of walking corpses blocking the rest of their retreat. He clapped his hands and slammed them down. Stone spikes rose up from the walkway, impaling the four nearest creatures and lifting them up off of their feet. The floor wasn't nearly as resistant to transmutation as the walls had been, but it was still draining Ed more than it should have.

He looked over at Hermione, who took a gasping breath and shrieked "Incendio!" again. The blast of fire was the smallest one yet, but the shambling line of creatures drew back from it. Even as they did, more crawled out of the pits around them. Ed shook his head. _How did all these people get down here?_ he wondered for the hundredth time. He gritted his teeth and clapped his hands again. Instead of altering the floor, he stuck his hand into the liquid of the nearest pit. He used alchemy to drain the energy from the water, sealing a few dozen of the creatures under a sheet of ice, and stopping those that were part of the way out in their tracks. He got up and looked for a new target, only to have his knees give out. His arm shook as he tried again to stand. He couldn't be out of energy. Not yet.

One of the creatures grabbed his shoulder and he kicked it with his automail leg. It tumbled backward off the other side of the walkway, falling into a pit he hadn't frozen yet. His head spun. He looked for Hermione, but in the place where she had stood a moment before, he saw only the creatures. They were leaning down, tugging and tearing at something.

"Oh no!"

He couldn't get to his feet, so he started crawling. He was still mad at the girl, but that didn't mean he wanted her torn limb from limb by the undead. Suddenly an Inferius came flying at him and he rolled to get out of its way. He saw a flash of light as its foot clipped the side of his head. Groaning, he pushed himself up again.

"When did those bastards learn to fly?" he asked no one in particular.

His muddled thoughts were pushed from his mind as a massive bear rose up on its haunches and swatted another Inferius into the air with an almost lazy sweep of its paw.

"Oh, a bear," he mumbled, and then it was running at him, roaring.

He clapped his hands together and tried to focus enough to transmute, but the reaction fizzled out between his palms. The walkway seemed to shake and he saw trails of drool falling from the huge beast's mouth. Curl up and play dead. That's what the survival guides always told you. Of course, the bear was attacking dead people, so he didn't know what to think. He wrapped his arms around his head and curled up in a ball, squeezing his eyes shut. He expected a crunch, but only heard a POP!

"Ed, quit messing around!" Hermione shouted, shaking him.

"There's a bear," he mumbled.

"I know," she said.

She grabbed his arms and yanked him to his feet. Before he could complain, she started to pull him behind her as if she intended to carry him piggyback. He was going to point out it wouldn't work, when suddenly he was grabbing a bear around the neck, hanging on for dear life as it swatted Inferi left and right, clearing a path.

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A group of corpses had gathered around the base of the steps so thickly, Ed didn't think even the bear could push through them. His head was still spinning, but he loosened his grip on the bear, (who was probably Hermione, but he was still confused on that issue), and prepared to deconstruct. He probably couldn't take out more than three of the creatures before he used up what little energy he had regained in the brief, bear-provided break. He wondered if there were lead Inferi that the others were following. Maybe if he could take out an important one…

A huge blast of flames from the stairwell solved that problem for him. The creatures were crowded so tightly together that they couldn't dodge. The ones nearest the steps sizzled, steamed and collapsed in on themselves. When Harry had attacked with fire, he'd only been able to drive them back. Whoever was coming towards them could apparently create enough heat to actually destroy them. The bear pressed itself to the wall and Ed hunched behind it as the Inferi fled past them. Ed had another moment of confusion as the creatures seemed to choose self-preservation over their mission to guard the tunnel, but he didn't think about it too long.

He peeked around the bear, and saw Ron limping towards them. He seemed to take the bear in stride.

"Where's Harry?" Ron demanded.

"He's in the scroll," Ed said, pointing to the roll of parchment he'd tied to his automail arm.

"What?" Ron demanded.

The creatures which had fled from the flames started towards them again.

"He's in the scroll," Ed repeated. "Can we discuss this when we aren't about to be eaten by zombies?"

The bear bellowed and both boys got the idea that it meant 'Inferi, not zombies'. Ron pointed towards the stairs and they started up.

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**Author's Note: **Yeah, I know it's a bit of a cliffhanger…but the next chapter will be out within ten days.

What did you think of the above writing sample?

A) Less than or equal to previous chapters

B) Greater than or equal to previous chapters

C) Greater than or equal to a poke in the eye with a sharp stick

D) Avogadro's Number

E) Other

Don't forget to review, please!

**Shameless plug: **Metgear5 has written a great story, _Of Alchemists and Mutants_. It's an X-men FMA crossover with great action scenes and good characterization. So if you are looking for a good crossover, it's one of the best works-in-progress I've come across. (And it doesn't have even half the reviews it deserves, so I'm worried the author will give up.) It's on my favorites list if you're interested!


	19. Chapter 19

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**The Scroll and Mr. Riddle**

Harry looked around and stifled a groan. He was in a library. A familiar library. For a confused moment, he wondered how he had gotten back to Hogwarts, but then it began to sink in that the color of everything was just a bit off, and there was nothing outside the windows but thick black fog. He was in a room built from someone else's memories, like the diary he'd destroyed five years earlier.

He slowly got to his feet. The library wasn't exactly the same as the one at Hogwarts, though he could tell it was the same room. There were no desks, only a few long tables against the walls. He wandered about and saw that there were fewer shelves, and no wire gate to fence in the restricted section. His eyes were drawn to a book with huge gold letters on the binding. He could read the first part of the title, which was "Hogwarts," but the rest seemed to be written in German or something. He read the next one and the next. None of the books was in English. More than a little baffled, he flipped through a large volume, trying to make sense from the pictures. There weren't any moving photographs, only sketches that distinctly lacked perspective. He frowned, trying to sound out the writing in the caption.

It hit him then. The books were in English, but it was so old he had no idea what it said. He remembered trying to mull his way through part of a Shakespeare play in primary school. This was a hundred times worse. He put the book back in the shelf and looked around. These must be Ravenclaw's lost spells. He sincerely hoped he wouldn't need any of them to make his way out.

He went to the windows and looked out, but the grounds of the school had not been recreated. He went to the doors of the library, but no matter how hard he pulled, they wouldn't open. He started pacing. To get out of Tom Riddle's diary, Harry had needed a push from the diary's author. He did not look forward to asking this version of Voldemort for a boost.

He felt a strange pressure then, and the walls seemed to bend outward in response to it. He drew his wand, though he didn't know if he'd be able to cast any spells in this small, artificial world. The bubble charm and gillyweed had vanished before he'd even landed on the library floor. With his free hand, he gripped the spine of a book. Even if his spells didn't work, he supposed he could try to club Voldemort with one of the incomprehensible tomes.

The doors of the library burst open and Harry backed up behind the nearest shelf. Through the doorway he saw only more of the fog that clouded all of the windows. A woman stepped into the room. She was tall, with brown hair tied back with a strangely knotted rope. Red robes swept around her. She looked around the room with a strangely expressionless gaze. Harry thought she looked almost exactly like the painting that still hung in the halls of the school, depicting Rowena Ravenclaw. He wondered then, if she didn't look a little too much like the painting. Perhaps Voldemort had simply whipped up an illusion, based on that very artwork.

"Who's there?" she called, fortunately not speaking the English in which the books were written. "I know you've come. Announce yourself."

Harry stayed silent.

"If you have come to trade knowledge, then speak," she commanded.

He watched her pace the library, looking behind shelves. There weren't any overt signs of Voldemort's influence, like an extra face sticking out of the back of her head. He looked at the black fog outside of the door, and then back to the woman as she disappeared behind a row of shelves. Harry darted across the open space. With three steps left between him and the exit, the doors slammed closed.

"There's nothing out there," the woman said. "What you seek is here. The greatest knowledge of the age is with in my domain. But any who seek it must give in order to receive. You seem young to have come through the puzzles I left, but perhaps that is a sign of your-"

"I don't mean to be rude ma'am," Harry interrupted. "But I just want to leave. I hadn't meant to end up in here."

"Then why did you lift the scroll?" she asked.

"Well I didn't really lift it," Harry said. "It was handed to me. Er…are you Rowena Ravenclaw?"

"I am Rowena Ravenclaw, Mistress of the Ancient Arts, and Speaker of the Ages Gone," she said. "I am one of the Four Founders and the High Witch of Avalon. I am the last of the Druid line of Elera and the Guardian of the Text of Umprotes. How are you called, boy?"

Harry chewed his lip for a moment. "I'm Harry James Potter," he said. She continued to stare at him, he supposed waiting for more titles. "Er… the Head of Dumbledore's Army…and…executor of the first true prophecy of Trelawney…and formerly a student of Hogwarts."

She nodded for a moment. "What you have said rings true, if a bit odd. You are the fifth in nine hundred years to find my scroll. If you are not here to trade knowledge, then why have you come?"

Harry wondered how well she could read him. He knew he wasn't a good liar, so he went with the truth.

"I'm looking for someone else who might be in here," Harry admitted finally. "He goes by the name of Voldemort, and we think he might have made this into a Horcrux."

"This scroll has always been a Horcrux," she said.

"Yes, well he might have left some of his soul in it too, and we need to get it out," Harry said.

"And why is that?" she asked.

Her tone hadn't changed from mild curiosity, but Harry could tell she was getting suspicious.

"We have to destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes to make him mortal again," Harry said. "He's sort of trying to take over the world."

She was frowning now. "If by Voldemort, you mean that bothersome Mr. Riddle, he is in the scroll, still."

"Where?" Harry asked, looking around nervously.

"He is off in the fog, the unformed space between what I have created and the outer reaches of the spell that preserves us."

"Why?"

"He believes he can escape back into the world. He can't, of course," she said dismissively.

"Isn't there any way to get him out of here? Maybe force him into the edge of the scroll and we could rip off that piece?" Harry asked.

"You can't destroy any of the scroll without destroying me," Ravenclaw said. "When he made this scroll his Horcrux, as well as mine, he bound our souls. When souls are forced to occupy the same vessel, it is like mixing two different cups of water in the same cauldron. You can't put the water back into the cup from which it came. That being the case, you are never leaving, either."

She didn't make any threatening movements. Instead, she turned away, as if the conversation no longer interested her. Harry's mouth dropped open a bit. He'd been a bit hopeful when she'd called Riddle bothersome, but he supposed it made sense. If she thought she'd die too, he couldn't really expect her to help.

"Voldemort is killing hundreds of people, and he'll keep doing it unless he's stopped," Harry tried to explain.

She did'nt reply to his statement, instead giving him a look that said "So what?"

Harry frowned. He hadn't really ever thought about meeting a founder, but he expected her to be a little more heroic. Of course, Slytherin had left the school filled with secret tunnels and a man-eating snake, so he wasn't sure where his optimism came from.

"I've got people outside. They'll burn the scroll in the end whether I can get out or not," Harry bluffed.

The threat didn't sound very convincing even to him. In reality, he worried that Ron, Hermione, and Ed would probably try everything they could to get him out and end up being stuck in the scroll with him. Of course, the scroll didn't seem to react to Ed, but what could he do even if he could carry it?

"Then why didn't you destroy the scroll immediately?" she asked.

"We thought maybe we'd be able to get rid of Voldemort, without destroying this. You've been stuck in here with him for almost twenty years, after all. You've got all this information. Certainly you've got a theory on separating him out?"

"I know it's impossible. There was no need to waste time theorizing about it," she said.

"For a woman dedicated to seeking knowledge, you're awfully dense," Harry said.

He scuffed his shoes on the floor in frustration.

"Tell me, do you know how a Horcrux is made?" she asked after a long moment.

"You've got to kill someone so you can tear off a piece of your own soul," Harry said.

"Exactly," she said. "The death I used was my own. There is nothing beyond this for me. All that matters is the knowledge I have here. This is my immortality."

Living forever in a scroll wasn't the kind of fate any sane person would choose, but Harry supposed sanity wasn't really a strong trait among the Founders.

"Well, if a soul can be torn in the first place to make the Horcrux, why can't the same thing be done to separate you two?" Harry demanded.

"I told you, it's impossible."

"Don't you care that innocent people are going to die?" Harry demanded.

"And what are they to me?" she asked. "Knowledge is my only interest."

Harry ground his teeth. "You had better start caring! If we can't separate you out, we'll destroy you both."

"No one would ever risk destroying my spells. They'd be forever lost to the world," she said haughtily.

"Well we've gotten on alright for the last thousand years without them," Harry said. "So they couldn't be that important."

"You seem to forget that I'm the only one who can let you out of here," she said. "If the scroll is destroyed, you will perish with Riddle and myself."

"I didn't forget," Harry said. "And I didn't take on the task of hunting down Voldemort to increase my life expectancy."

Harry frowned as the words left his mouth. Thinking back on the prophecy, he supposed he was taking on Voldemort so he would live longer. Trelawney had said only one of them could live, didn't she? If he died in here, did that mean Voldemort had won? Or maybe the entire prophecy would be void. If his friends burned the scroll, he wouldn't have died by Voldemort's hands. Not that that made him feel any better. He looked up to see Ravenclaw glaring at him, the first real expression he'd seen on her face.

"You're one of Gryffindor's students, aren't you?" she asked.

Harry nodded.

"And those waiting outside for you, they are Gryffindor's, as well?"

Harry nodded again, deciding Ed was probably close enough to count.

"Then perhaps I will look into the issue of separation again. Your kind can't be trusted not to do something impulsive."

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The boat bounced over another wave, jarring all their teeth, the engine whining and growling as Ed pushed up the throttle again.

"I still don't get it," Ron complained over the noise.

"It must not have reacted to Ed because of his automail, or maybe because he's not a wizard," Hermione said.

"Well, how do we get him out?" demanded Ron.

"I've no idea. With Riddle's diary, he got kicked out, and he freed Ginny by destroying the book, but her physical body wasn't trapped inside at the time…"

"Again!" Ed shouted. "Can we discuss this when we aren't about to be eaten? Can't you conjure up some more of that repellent stuff?"

Ed turned sharply, skirting the edge of a whirlpool created when one of the Leviathans opened its mouth beneath the surface. They bounced over the wake of another Leviathan as it surfaced and turned towards them. Hermione dug through the crate, pitching things over the side that stained the water, but the creatures didn't seem bothered.

They had made it out of the cavern without much other trouble, though Hermione nearly capsized the boat when she hopped into the back, as a thousand-pound grizzly bear. It wasn't until they had cleared the fog and hit open water that the sea monsters had shown up. Ed suspected the creatures could sense the scroll he'd stuffed into the glovebox, and since Harry had somehow ended up inside it, they couldn't very well toss it overboard.

"Ideas?" Ed asked, spinning the wheel again as a Leviathan surfaced directly in front of them. A bag flew over the side and sank into the ocean. He pushed down the annoying little voice in the back of his mind that pointed out the bag was his. They were going too fast and the boat slammed sideways into the creature's wrinkly flank. Ed cracked his head on the windshield, hissing as the engine gave a sorrowful gurgle.

"Don't you dare," he growled under his breath, and the motor kept going.

He glanced back at Ron, who was firing rather pointless blasting hexes at the creatures; and Hermione, who had pulled a book out of one of the crates, and was rapidly paging through it.

"It's no good!" she shouted. "There isn't enough information on them!"

"So let's try to blow them up or something!" Ron said.

"I don't know any spells that big, do you?" she demanded.

"What about-"

Ron was cut off as they bounced through another wake. They ducked instinctively as a Leviathan's tail came up out of the water and slammed back down, soaking them, but missing the boat.

_Big explosion, hu?_ _Almost makes me wish the Colonel were here. Almost. Being eaten by a giant salamander…that would still be slightly less annoying than dealing with that arrogant, manipulative, smirking bastard. Of course, if he's not here, that means he can't complain about my stealing his technique._

Ed wasn't an expert at atmospheric manipulation, but he knew enough about physics to pull something together.

"Hermione! Those bubbles you made so we could breathe, can you make them free-floating?" Ed called.

"What?" she asked.

"We can make a really big explosion, but if we can't keep things separate until the last minute, we'll fry. Can you make those bubbles?"

"I think-" she started.

"Don't think. Be sure. I can transmute water into hydrogen and oxygen. If we can contain it and introduce a spark, we might be able to blow a couple of those things out of the water!"

"I can," she called.

With that, Ed let go of the wheel and hopped from the pilot's seat. With a startled gargling noise, Ron leapt forward to take over. Ed ran to the back of the boat, stuck the toes of his right foot under the railing and leaned over the side. Hermione leaned over as well. With all the weight in the back, the boat started to tip upwards at an unstable angle, but Ron didn't slow them down.

"Ready?" Ed shouted over the roar of the motor.

"Yes!"

He clapped and jammed his hands into the foaming water. Hermione jammed her wand into the water and a huge, filmy bubble formed. It skimmed over the surface just behind the engine. Ed wasn't much for praying, but he was mumbling 'don't touch the engine' over and over under his breath as the explosive mixture of gas was twisted by a strange piloting decision by Ron. Suddenly the bubble slipped away from their hands and floated skyward.

"Crap!" Ed said. "Can you bring it back down?"

Hermione was already aiming her wand as she nodded. There was a Leviathan with its head entirely out of the water a hundred yards to the right.

"That one!" Ed said.

Hermione whipped her wand around and the bubble darted where she pointed. Ed pulled a flare from the tool box and struck the end, wincing as sparks fell around the gas can, which he suddenly noticed Harry hadn't capped properly. The Leviathan must have thought the bubble looked tasty because it opened its gaping mouth obligingly. Ed threw the flare. His aim was embarrassingly off, but as the flare fell a few yards beneath the bubble, Hermione shouted "Finite!" and the bubble burst, spilling the volatile mixture into the air. Ed saw the flare catch and was about to cheer when the explosion knocked him to the deck with spots in his eyes and ears ringing from the bang. Hermione managed to land on him and put an elbow into his solar plexus. Ed gave her a shove and staggered upright. The monster was still there, but it seemed disoriented, and a disgusting yellow fluid was pouring from both its nostrils. Ed supposed that meant they'd hurt it. The creature sank below the waves. Ed tugged Hermione's arm.

"Again!" he shouted.

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Ravenclaw had ensconced herself in a small fortress of books. Harry circled her, rather frustrated by her unhurried attitude. He looked over her shoulder a few times, but he couldn't figure out the old English, and the pictures were not helpful. Once in a while she would look up at him, but she never said anything. Harry looked at his watch. It wasn't working, but he was fairly certain several hours had gone by at least.

"Voldemort almost escaped from one of the other Horcruxes," Harry said.

Ravenclaw looked up. Even though she didn't speak, Harry took this as a sign of interest.

"He had made a diary into a Horcrux and he possessed a girl who'd been writing in it," Harry said.

"I suppose that is one way to get out, if the host is weaker then the invading soul. Riddle does seem ruthless enough to achieve something of the sort. I don't suppose you're concerned about that?" she asked him.

"Not really," Harry said. "He doesn't have any magic besides that in here, does he?"

"No," she said. "He isn't truly alive at the moment. He'd need to parasitize someone else."

Harry was starting to wonder if she were capable of releasing him from the scroll when something moved in the fog outside of the windows.

"What was that?" Harry asked.

"Riddle is coming," she said, turning another page.

"Should we hide or something?" Harry asked.

"There wouldn't be any point to it," she said.

"Can you read any faster?" Harry asked.

"That would also be pointless," she said.

Harry looked back towards the door.

The walls wobbled and warped and then the doors sprang open again. A man strode out of the black fog. He was tall with dark hair, combed neatly back from his forehead and a suit that looked more muggle than wizard in style, though he wore black robes over it. Harry knew him immediately, an older version of the Tom Riddle he had met in the diary.

"And who has come to visit us, Rowena, my dear?" Riddle asked in a calm and cultured voice.

"None of your concern" she said.

"My dear," Riddle chided. "There is no need to be rude."

"Sure there is," Harry said, glaring at the newcomer, checking for the wand in his sleeve.

"Ah," he said, seeming almost pleased. "Then you recognize me," Riddle concluded.

"Yeah," Harry said. "You look like your father."

He'd meant the remark to anger Riddle, but the man didn't seem at all bothered.

"The old man put out the part of himself that resembled his father," Riddle said. "A rather foolish bit of pride, but he is not without flaws. I'd like to think, now that I've become independent, that I've gotten past such trivial issues. Not that I have any fondness for muggles, mind you, but a few of them aren't half bad-looking."

For a moment, Harry wondered if this piece of Voldemort viewed the original body as a parent, a parent with outdated ideas. The version of Riddle in the diary hated muggles, but this one seemed to have gotten over it, at least partially.

"You run at the mouth enough to be a bit of him," Harry said.

Ravenclaw ignored them both in favor of the books that surrounded her.

"And who are you, boy? You look like a Potter, a son of James, perhaps?" Riddle said.

Harry nodded.

"I suppose the old man is slipping," Riddle said. "Tell me boy, have we killed your father yet?"

Harry saw red for a moment, but held himself back. "You did," he answered, through grinding teeth, "But my mum took care of the rest of you. A muggleborn destroyed your body. All you are now is a scrap in a moldy piece of parchment, and soon enough that will burn."

Riddle snorted. "You've found a single Horcrux, and you've yet to succeed in destroying it. And I am not so weak or so foolish as to keep all my life in one place."

"No, you're the fool who hid bits of his soul in _themed_ objects: Hufflepuff's cup, gone, Slytherin's ring, gone, the diary, gone, the locket, gone…and here you are. We're more than halfway through," Harry finished with a mean grin.

Harry knew it wasn't very smart to tell this part of Voldemort how close they were to finishing him off, but maybe if he angered him enough, he'd let something about the final Horcrux slip. In previous encounters, Voldemort seemed more than willing to tell his life story, even without prompting.

"You couldn't possibly…" Riddle said, and then shook himself. "It doesn't matter. In fact, that may work out for the best. There will be less competition when I get out."

"You know you can't leave," Ravenclaw interrupted. "We're bound."

"Then we'll both have to go, won't we, my dear?" Riddle said.

"I will not leave my books behind," she said, grabbing the edge of the nearest shelf as if she expected him to try to drag her somewhere.

On the other side of the room, Riddle vanished, and Harry's head felt as if it were bursting. The room wobbled and twisted. For a moment, his body shuddered in pain, but he remembered from the Department of Mysteries, the thing that Voldemort could not stand. Harry thought of the people who were willing to give their lives for him, and those he would die for. There was an echoing howl of pain in his head, and then the pressure was gone. Harry blinked in confusion. He was on his knees, though he didn't remember falling. Riddle was on the other side of the room again, holding his head.

"It can't be," Riddle hissed.

"That's what they all say," Harry said, trying his best not to sound nauseous.

Riddle vanished again, and again Harry was floored, but after a few minutes of head-splitting migraines, Riddle was rejected.

"What _is_ going on?" Ravenclaw asked Harry. She let go of the shelf, apparently unaffected by the battle of wills. "There is no reason I can think of for such a reaction."

Harry shrugged. "The real one can't possess me, either. Maybe they're just allergic to Potters, or maybe he's such an evil freak he can't stand to be around a normal person."

"Unlikely," Ravenclaw said. "What is your take, Mr. Riddle?"

He glared. "There's something wrong with the boy's soul," he said. "It isn't human."

Harry was about to shout something scathing about Riddle's mother, but Ravenclaw cut him off.

"That is also unlikely," she said. "But a force, equal and opposite, would be necessary…"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"What was the last Horcrux?" Ravenclaw asked the gasping Mr. Riddle, who was struggling to stay on his feet on the other side of the library.

Riddle glared. "It wasn't made yet, obviously."

"But you were seeking something of Gryffindor's, weren't you?" Ravenclaw asked. "He was the only founder the boy didn't mention."

Riddle glared, but she seemed to take that as confirmation.

"Boy," she asked. "What house are you in, at Hogwarts?"

"Gryffindor," Harry answered, still baffled.

"He wouldn't be that foolish," Riddle protested. "He wouldn't hide the last of his soul in something mortal."

The witch and the wizard argued back and forth. Harry seemed to have slipped from their minds. He felt as if he had slipped from his own as well. The room spun.

It would make sense, wouldn't it? How I ended up a parselmouth…why he ordered the other Death Eaters to catch me alive rather than kill me…but that would mean he knew….

Harry looked up as he heard a door slam, but the fact that Riddle was leaving the room didn't seem that important. At that moment, nothing did. He wasn't sure how much time had passed before he noticed Ravenclaw was looking down at him. Harry couldn't seem to care enough to move, but her detached curiosity was a bit disturbing.

"Why are you so shocked?" she asked. "Didn't you wonder why you were connected to him?"

"But there was a prophecy," Harry said. "It said 'neither can live while the other survives.' If I don't die too…he can come back."

"Where did you get this prophecy from?" she asked.

"Trelawney…" Harry stopped.

He hadn't gotten the prophecy directly from her. He had gotten it secondhand, from Dumbledore, from his Pensieve. And a Pensieve didn't always contain the truth.

"It is more likely that the prophecy said 'neither can die while the other survives,' since you are living already," Ravenclaw pointed out.

"But why would he…" Harry felt as if something heavy had suddenly fallen on him. "Why would he lie to me?"

"Perhaps to keep Voldemort from learning the truth. Your minds are linked, after all."

"But…he…he wanted Voldemort to kill me?"

"I suspect he intended…a more mutual sort of destruction. It would make sense," she said, with no real feeling.

"But why would he lie?" Harry asked, his chest aching almost as badly as his head.

"Perhaps he was worried it would upset you," she suggested. "Or he feared others would take your life to weaken Voldemort."

Harry pulled his knees up and rested his chin on them. It would make sense, wouldn't it? Dumbledore never wanted to tell him anything, and when he did explain things, they seemed to contradict logic. If "Love" was enough to keep Voldemort from possessing him, why didn't it keep Ginny safe in her first year of school?

_If he knew I'd have to die to get rid of Voldemort, it would explain why he always let me get away with crap that should have gotten me expelled. It would explain why he always let Gryffindor win the house cup, why he let me on the Quidditch team early, and why he put up with my temper. Be nice to the boy-who-lived. He's going to die soon._

_But if he was favoring me, why leave me at the Dursleys? Why not find the richest wizards who would take me, and let me live it up? Why put me in a place…so similar to where Voldemort grew up?_

Harry felt his forehead wrinkle up in distress and it pulled on his scar.

_Was Dumbledore testing me, seeing if I'd turn out the same way…because I'm…contaminated?_

"Riddle was right to believe that souls in the same body would become bound up," Ravenclaw said, interrupting his thoughts. "I cannot extricate myself from the Horcrux without destroying myself. I find it bizarre that he can't occupy you, though. You already contain a piece of his soul. That should have made it even easier to occupy your form."

"Dumbledore said it was because Voldemort gave up too much of his humanity, that he'd traded away so much of himself to gain power, that normal emotions and feelings actually cause him pain."

"That is a rather…saccharine way of putting it," Ravenclaw said, "But it may be, in essence, true. It is possible that the fragment of his soul that you bear has… realigned itself. Since you are nearly the opposite of him in all regards of heart and spirit, it is possible that the fragment of his soul you possess is now acting as a repellent. I suppose forcing more of his soul into you would result in a mutually ablative process."

"So you're saying that when his soul that he still has runs into the piece of his soul that I have, they destroy each other?" Harry asked.

"That is my theory, though what damage it will do to your own native soul, I can only guess."

"So if I can get him to possess me for long enough, he'll…melt or something?"

"It's possible," Ravenclaw allowed. "But I don't see how you would convince him to possess you again. It seems equally likely you'd be able to convince him to stick his head in a boiling cauldron."

"Why don't you do it, then?" Harry asked.

"What?"

"You said that if he tried to possess me, you'd have to come, too. So if you possess me, he'll be dragged in right? And then he'll get melted and…"

"It's more likely all three of us will be destroyed," Ravenclaw said. "And if I left the scroll and moved into your body, I would lose my books…all my knowledge…my spells…"

"When my team burns the scroll, this will all be destroyed anyway," Harry said. "We might as well try to take him out before that becomes necessary."

She nodded. "I will try it, but there is something we have to do first."

Ravenclaw took a book down and flipped through it to a bookmarked page. Harry looked upside down at the tiny print. She produced a quill out of nowhere, grabbed Harry's arm, and pushed up his sleeve. He did not like at all where this was going.

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Beneath his feet, huge shadows moved, but none dared break the surface. He strode across the water, toward the stone staircase. He had a feeling that might once have been described as worry, but now was just another source of acid seeping into the pool of rage at his center. The detection spell had gone off a day ago. He'd known immediately that someone had breached the entrance of Ravenclaw's cavern, but he couldn't simply walk away from the hundreds of Dementors he'd assembled. It had taken a week to get them all in one place. Now that they were busy in central London, he had plenty of time.

There was a thick layer of scum in the stairwell, and the stone walls were scorched. Several Inferi, at least, had been incinerated there. He rushed down the steps, gliding over the stones. There were a few Inferi wandering around the walkway. They were missing limbs and puckered with burns. By the first wall, several of the creatures twitched, trying vainly to free themselves from the stone spikes that had impaled them and lifted them from the floor.

He waved his wand and the puzzle wall shattered. Water rushed out and around him, as if it feared to touch his robes. He saw through the shattered wall, through a hole in the next wall, and into the scroll chamber, which was also flooded. He turned and rushed up the stairs, a few feet ahead of the rising water. He didn't need to enter the chamber to know the Horcrux was gone. He didn't need spells to tell him who had taken it, either. He'd seen a muggle flashlight in the water that tumbled into the main chamber; Potter and his muggle-born friends.

He reached the surface, cleared the wards and disapparated. He did not return to his base. Instead, he went to the cavern where he'd been taken for holidays as a child in the orphanage. The locket was gone. He rushed to the rundown factory, where he'd hidden the cup, and found it shattered on the ground, the fragment of his soul missing. The Gaunt house was empty, the ring gone. And that fool Malfoy had lost the Diary years before.

The hillside around the Gaunt house shuddered. In the town of Little Hangleton, lights went out. Less than a mile from the Riddle Mansion, and they had snatched the ring away as well. When Potter had killed his pet Nagini, he must have taken the ring then, and killed the serpent as a distraction, or perhaps he thought the snake was a Horcrux as well. The only question now was, had Potter destroyed the other Horcruxes, or had he taken them to attempt some other spell? Voldemort knew all sorts of terrible things you could do to a man if you had a piece of his soul, but the boy probably wouldn't. Voldemort cast a tracking spell, and standing on the dark hillside, he felt a slight tug in response. To the North and East, he could feel it slightly. At least one of the Horcruxes was intact, and it was moving. It wouldn't be for long.

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**Author's note: **Yeah I know this is a couple of days later then promised. I lost internet access, and had to kill my computer. Grrrrrrrr. Don't forget to review!


	20. Chapter 20

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 20: Rancor and Ruckus**

Ed tried not to groan as the trailer rocked back and forth. It had been a nasty two-day trip back to land. The Leviathans had finally given up after they bloodied their noses ten times over with exploding hydrogen balloons. The boat eventually cleared the apparation barrier, and they prepared to ditch it, only to find that the person holding Ed, who was holding the Scroll, couldn't apparate. Hermione shrugged and declared they would just have to get back to shore the muggle way. Of course, then the boat had run out of gas and the current pulled them even further out to sea before Hermione finally figured out how to use a modified summoning charm to drag them back toward England.

They had tied the boat up at the dock they'd rented it from, stuffed the keys through the mail slot in the manager's office, and run like hell. Hermione's credit card account definitely wouldn't be happy when the boat's owner found the assorted Mermaid, Siren, Inferi, and Leviathan-related damages their repair charms hadn't been able to patch.

Now Ed was charged with monitoring the Scroll for any change, while Hermione and Ron rode in the cab, arguing over what they should do next. Hermione said they should drive as close as possible to Hogwarts, then one of them should apparate to the wards, run in, get some brooms, and come back. Ron thought they should go back to Order headquarters in London, and find his brother Bill who had some sort of expertise with cursed parchments. For the moment they were just following the road, trying to get as far away from the coast as possible, in case any sea monsters were able to sense the Scroll through the shielding around the trailer. Ed would have voted for a return to the school if they had asked him. But they hadn't.

He poked at the Scroll again with his automail hand. It didn't do anything. Here was another phenomenon that he couldn't quite work into his worldview. Over the past week he'd been working out how 'magic' could be possible, theoretically at least. All the levitations, transformations, security alarms, and hexes were somehow, at their core, the manipulation of energy fields. Potions had to be chemical reactions. And all the weird creatures were altered flesh and blood in some form or another. In the end, everything had to have a source, and an explanation…

But then how does a guy get sucked into a little roll of paper?

He sighed. Even if there were some unifying theory, he certainly didn't have time to work it out. He let his eyes drift shut, wondering if Al was having any better luck working out the mechanics of the cylinder. The trailer jarred and Ed's eyes popped back open. He got up from the floor to peer out the window at the cab. Ron and Hermione were arguing and pointing and allowing the vehicle to drift a bit off the road. Ed tapped his knuckles on the glass, but the five feet between the end of the trailer and the back window of the cab was apparently too much for his annoyed expressions to traverse. He was about to yell when a flash of red light caught the corner of his eye.

He started to turn toward it, but the window was at the wrong angle for him to see the source. It didn't really matter, though, because in the next instant the red light was washing over the entire cab. Ed threw himself towards the rear of the cluttered trailer just as it was struck on the side and lifted from the ground.

The front end of the trailer vanished in a brief orange glow, but the back end, which was still tumbling in the air, continued forward and down, bouncing off the road and disgorging books, camping gear, and food all over the place. Ed was thrown against the ceiling by the first bounce and ricocheted off the narrow table on the second. The broken trailer hit the road a third time, but apparently didn't have the energy to lift off again, and settled for a rattling skid before colliding with a boulder on the shoulder of the road, which brought it to a complete and sudden stop, dislodging the hot plate from the counter and allowing it to fall onto Ed's right foot.

_Uhhhhhh?_ He sat up, more than a little disoriented. Something dripped on him and he flinched. He rubbed at it and looked up, slightly stupefied to see a two-liter bottle of soda had been impaled by a broken table leg and was now slowly bleeding bubbling liquid all over his head. _Maybe I should move?_

It took him another few slightly addled seconds to get all his limbs working, and though his back was killing him from where he bounced off the table, everything moved the way it was supposed to. He crawled out of under the rain of soda and looked out through the gaping hole where the front of the trailer used to be.

Ed could see the cab of the truck twenty yards further down the highway, smoke pouring from the grille as two limp figures tried to peel themselves up from the dashboard. The bed of the truck and the front end of the trailer were nowhere to be found. He supposed they might have been incinerated, and wondered if it was luck or intention that had prevented the three living beings in the vehicle from getting fried as well. Ed was about to make a run for the cab when something else dislodged from the ceiling and bounced off his head, albeit lightly. He saw the Scroll come to a landing in the clutter next to him and snatched it up, realizing he would have left without it. He wondered again about intention.

He didn't have any pockets large enough to hide it in, and after another blurry moment, he pried up the cover plate on his right arm and stuffed the scroll through the gap. He wiggled his fingers, and found his automail still worked. He pushed the plate down but didn't seal it. If people were to pop out of it, he didn't want them to come out as hamburger or blow his arm apart in the process.

Ed peeked out of the trailer, but didn't see anyone on the side of the road, though he doubted they would just leave. He clapped his hands together and pressed them to the asphalt. Clouds of grit blasted up into the air, and Ed scurried across the pavement to the cab. He transmuted the shattered windshield into sand and leaned in. He couldn't tell if it was Hermione or Ron who had puked, but it covered them both equally. Hermione crawled out of the cab under her own power, but Ron had to be dragged. Once outside, they were able to prop him up on shaking feet, but whether or not he could remain standing was questionable.

Ed slapped his hands together and sent up another cloud of dust. He grabbed Hermione's arm and she grabbed Ron's. The human chain stumbled off the road and into a field. Ed looked down and saw that every single one of their dark detectors was glowing an ominous red.

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They'd strengthened the wards, and set creatures to guard the forest, but to someone who'd spent half his life on its grounds, Hogwarts was anything but secure. Snape passed under cursed arches and through warded passages unmolested and undetected. The Dark Mark on his arm burned impatiently. Snape didn't think the summoning had anything to do with his current assignment, but he'd have to get to the Dark Lord's side as soon as he had the Elrics, if he wanted to avoid punishment. He turned in the main hall, ignoring the portraits and ghosts. Long strides brought his targets ever closer.

Harper's last report said Al Elric was housed in the Hospital Wing so his condition could be monitored. Other sources in Slytherin indicated his brother, Ed, had moved into the hospital as well when he returned to the school, after trashing the Dark Lord's mansion. Snape thought something strange was going on, as the previous reports of the Elrics mentioned daily sparring, but now they were rarely seen outside the hospital, and then only in the company of the little dueling club Potter's followers had started up again. There were also Ministry sightings of the older boy, Ed, traveling with Potter's crew. Still, it was obvious they were somehow linked to the school.

Snape disarmed the alert spells around the hospital doors. He pushed them open silently, but air rushed in past him, rustling curtains and clinking vials together in their racks. Madame Pomfrey leaned out of her office, and took a wordless stunning hex to the face. She fell backwards into her office and Snape pulled her door shut again, sealing her in.

He strode through the main ward toward the private rooms in the back. No one had come from there to investigate the flash of light, but Snape was certain the rooms were occupied. Slowly he moved to the first door, as light was spilling from beneath it. He cast a quick charm to improve his hearing, to find out who was inside. There were fancier and more informative spells, but this one used so little energy it was unlikely to set off even the most sensitive of alarms. He was mildly surprised by the results.

"Just go away!" a familiar voice ordered.

"Let me see it!" a younger, higher voice demanded.

Apparently Draco Malfoy had been granted sanctuary at the school. Snape thought for a moment. The Dark Lord had ordered the boy be brought back if found, but since Snape had left it rather unclear as to whether the boy had defected or been captured, he didn't have orders to kill him yet. Of course, if Snape did bring him back, the conflicted teenager was as good as dead. Three questions under Veritaserum and his lack of loyalty to the Dark Lord would be inexcusably obvious. Snape would then either have to explain to the Dark Lord his unbreakable vow and how his own life was forfeit if Malfoy died, or he'd have to oppose the Dark Lord directly. Neither option was acceptable.

"I'm not letting you draw your weird symbols on my arm!" Draco said.

"This will make it hurt less," the other boy insisted. "See, this is a circumvention array, and this is a patterning grid."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Draco growled.

"If it works, it should take the energy that the curse mark is sending into your arm, direct it through the array, and dissipate most of it before it can send much of anything up your nerves into your brain."

"How do you know it will work?"

"Well I don't, but I don't think it will hurt. I read about these being used in medical alchemy to reduce fever, but heat is just another kind of energy, so I think this will still be compatible."

There was a long pause.

"Alright," Draco said.

There was a hiss and then the faint crackle of released energy.

"My arm's gone numb," Draco said.

"But it doesn't hurt, does it?" the other voice asked.

There was some inarticulate grumbling, followed by an almost inaudible "Thanks, Al."

"No problem," the young voice replied. "But if your arm starts turning blue or something, you should probably break the seal. It might interfere with circulation."

There was a faint pause, and Snape heard only two people breathing.

"Heard from your brother yet?" Draco asked.

"No," Al said. "But he's only been gone two weeks, right? Can't save the world in two weeks, I guess."

Snape muffled a snort of contempt. He took a vial from his robes, and tapped it a few times until the bubbles had settled out of the brackish liquid it contained. He cast a bubble charm over his mouth and nose; silently he knelt down, and poured it along the crack beneath the door.

"Is it getting dark-" Al started to ask.

Thump!

Snape heard a chair move and two footsteps.

Thump!

Snape pushed open the door and levitated Al. A few feet away from him, Ed Elric was sprawled on the floor. Or rather a good make up of Ed Elric. If Snape hadn't known from his voice that it was Draco, and the boy's sleeves hadn't been rolled up, he might have been fooled. But Ed Elric didn't have a Dark Mark on his left arm.

He shook his head, slightly disappointed, not that Draco had managed to convince his enemies to shelter him from the Dark Lord, but because the boy had warded his room only against rather mundane curses and hexes. Six years of classes with the boy, and he had yet to gain an appreciation for odorless colorless poisons. Snape shook his head again. It wasn't like he was really a teacher.

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"Do you think they know where we are?" Ron asked.

Hermione nodded. "They've already locked onto us with tracking spells. I don't know a shielding spell strong enough to counter."

"So why aren't they coming down after us?" Ron muttered.

They were huddled in the small cavern Ed had transmuted, surrounded on all sides by crumbling earth. They each wore a bubble charm over their faces, to avoid smothering, for an hour at least. They'd been pursued from the road by dark figures, though they hadn't been fired upon. It was obvious they wouldn't outrun them, so Hermione decided they should hide.

They'd tried to send Hermione for help, but some ward had come up to keep them from Apparating, and since there was no obvious source, Ed couldn't use alchemy to blow it up or knock it down. Ron had tried to call for help with his mirror, but it had shattered when he activated it. The only information their dark detectors gave them was that the area was awash in dark magic. Even Ed knew that without being told. His crawling skin was keeping him informed.

"Can we just keep tunneling?" Ron asked Ed, despite his obvious exhaustion.

Ed shook his head. "I can't move the earth around faster than they can follow, and it isn't exactly quiet. The soil is too loose. They won't even need magic to track us."

"What else can we do?" Ron asked.

"Split up," Ed said. "Everyone runs their own way and we hope somebody makes it past to find help."

"There are at least twenty of them," Hermione said. "Even if we split up, they wouldn't have trouble following."

"We could-"

Ed was cut off as dirt showered down from the ceiling. He clapped his hands and reached up to reinforce it, but leapt back as a huge skittering thing burst through. He crawled back as the thing writhed around, knocking loose dirt and revealing the rest of its form. The centipede was at least a foot across, and he couldn't begin to guess how long, though he thought he'd probably find out soon as its dozens of jagged feet pushed it further into their hideout. Ed rolled to the side as it lunged at him.

"Petrificus totalus!" Hermione shrieked.

Blue light hit the creature, but only one set of its legs stopped moving, the segments on both sides continued to propel it forward.

"What the hell?" Ron shouted as two more of the creatures burst through into the makeshift bunker.

Another creature pushed its way through. Ed supposed it had started out as an earthworm, but the ropy rubbery creature was now oozing a green slime that hissed and smoked as it touched the soil. Ed's eyes watered and he was very glad the bubble charm was keeping his lungs clear.

Ed clenched his jaw and started transmuting the nearest wall. Ron and Hermione crawled along behind him, still firing less-than-useful charms at the giant insects that pursued them.

"I think it's Mephisto's elixir," Hermione said.

"What's that?" Ron asked as they pressed in behind Ed.

"It's a potion that-"

"That turns normal bugs into huge freakin' monsters?" Ed bellowed sarcastically.

"Well, yes," she said, annoyed. "But its range is limited to the area they dispersed the potion over. If we move far enough in any one direction, or surface…"

"That's probably what they're hoping for," Ron said.

"So we're going to have to fight," Ed growled. "Fine by me."

"Maybe…" Ron muttered as he fired off another curse at a huge bug. "I've an idea!"

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Snape hurried through the low corridor that led from the main hall to the docks where they kept the boats the first years rode to the school on their first visit. It wasn't the way he'd come in, but he wanted his exit to be blatant when they eventually looked for it. Nothing inspired terror like the obvious incompetence of one's protectors. The sound of lapping water had just reached him when it got suddenly and unnaturally dark.

"Put him down and leave," Draco's voice echoed in the blackness.

Snape stopped walking, but did not obey. "Peruvian Darkness Powder? Again, Draco?"

The boy's feet scuffled. Apparently he did not like to be reminded that the last time he had used this substance, it had been to sneak Death Eaters into the school to kill the Headmaster.

"I know you don't have a wand," Snape continued. "Even they aren't foolish enough to trust you with one. How did you overcome the drowsing mist, by the way?"

"I've been taking All-sym Serum to try and stop the Mark from burning. The Pasque and Skullcap in it must've counteracted the Foxglove and Droxy venom in your mist," the teenager explained as if he expected to be graded. "Put Al down and I won't stop you leaving," Draco added.

"You aren't in any position to stop me," Snape said. "A few pointless heroics aren't going to put you back in the Ministry's good graces."

"That isn't the point," Draco said, shifting around in the narrow hallway. Snape was fairly certain he had enough of a bead on him to hit the boy with a stunning curse now. "Put Al down."

Snape snorted. "A person you've known for a week is hardly cause to risk your life, Draco."

"I know what's going to happen to him if you take him. I don't know much about him, but I know he doesn't deserve that," Draco said, his feet shifting again. Snape heard metal clinking against glass. "Longbottom didn't deserve it, nor any of the others. It isn't right."

A week away from Slytherins and the boy was already contaminated with blind idealism. There wasn't much he could do about it now, but soon, perhaps. Snape had a feeling things were coming to a head, and it wasn't just the burning in his own Dark Mark that told him so.

Something came sailing though the dark and he dodged, bringing up his wand. Whatever it was shattered against the ceiling. Snape's still-active bubble charm was apparently enough to protect him from it, though. It seemed as if Malfoy couldn't see any better than he could. He heard Malfoy's feet shuffling, and took aim.

"I haven't the time for your crisis of conscience," Snape said. "Stupefy!"

Even the spell produced no light. He heard it strike, however and something crashed to the floor. He paused, again listening. He heard breathing, but nothing moved. Blindly, he made his way down the steps, with Al still floating behind him. The docks themselves were not contaminated with darkness, and it was easy enough to find a boat and launch it out onto the lake. He didn't bother disarming the alarms as he left and he heard the castle erupt in chaos behind him.

The boat drifted past the anti-apparation wards and Snape grabbed ahold of Al's arm. He didn't notice that the boy twitched slightly as he was pulled upright, nor did he notice the potion Draco had thrown had soaked the smaller boy's shirt.

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Carmine Lloyd paced back and forth rather impatiently as he and his fellow Death Eaters waited for the Mephisto's elixir to dribble down through the earth to the little blood-traitor rats. He'd been put in charge of the operation for once, which had him both thrilled and horrified. It was probably only because Snape was busy with something else, but if he succeeded, Carmine hoped he'd gain some merit for it. It was hard to work your way up in the Dark Lord's army when you were named for a muggle crime boss.

The Dark Lord had summoned them to this empty stretch of countryside nearly an hour ago to search for Potter's little group of troublemakers. (Though apparently, Potter wasn't actually with them) That wasn't so strange, as they were frequently sent to search for people at odd hours of the day and night. What was odd were the orders they'd been given: no massively destructive hexes or curses, no fire, and no cutting. He wondered what the blood-traitors were carrying that was so fragile. Of course, the killing curse didn't break anything, so most weren't terribly disappointed.

It really shouldn't be that hard. Potter's friends weren't even out of school yet, just a mudblood, a blood traitor Weasley (not that there were any other kind), and a runty little blond thing that had a talent for moving a lot of earth. He frowned, wondering about that. He supposed the boy could have been some kind of half-breed Dwarf, but even they needed potions and charmed tools to do their work, and nobody had seen anything like that when the blond had trashed the Dark Lord's house. Carmine's musings were cut short as he felt a rumble in the earth.

The ground around them exploded, and stone spikes rammed upwards through the soil, many with the transfigured worms speared and writhing on them. Carmine stumbled away from a jagged tower of stone that formed almost directly under his feet. He was quick enough to save his skin, but his robes were torn, and from the shrieks of pain around them, he knew at least four of his troops had not been fast enough. The ground continued to quake, though no additional spikes appeared.

For a moment he thought they had failed to flush them out, but a shout from a few yards away drew his attention. Drew Locksferd, (a fellow who could not get his skull mask to hang straight no matter what charms he put on it) waved Carmine over, and he saw that three of the spikes were caving in on themselves. They were hollow and their occupants had apparently already abandoned them. The Death Eaters whirled in confusion, seeing no trace of the three teenagers they were pursuing.

Carmine was about to order them to split up and continue their search when he noticed there were a few more Death Eaters hanging around the field than there had been, and a couple of them were much shorter than they should be. He pressed his wand to his own left forearm, activating the Dark Mark. He clenched his teeth, prepared for the pain shooting through his arm. The others in his group weren't and all but three jerked and clutched at their suddenly burning limbs.

The teenagers knew instantly that their cover was blown. Carmine fired off a killing curse, but they scattered. The smallest one in Death Eater robes lashed out, kicking the nearest man in the face. Carmine heard bones crunch. He fired off another killing curse, but the boy dropped backwards, rolling under the green light and into a handspring as the black robes fell from his shoulders.

The other two were not idle. The Weasley boy was firing curses every which way, forcing him to dodge. He took aim at the boy but was distracted as another discarded cloak came flying at him, revealing, not a teenage girl as he'd expected, but a large and disgruntled bear. It reared up and its paws came crashing back down on the heads of the two Death Eaters to his right. They did not get up. Carmine fired off a killing curse at the bear, which was much too large to dodge.

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Ed seized the Death Eater's wrist and rolled backwards, kicking upwards into the man's chest. The Death Eater let out a gasp as he was thrown into the air, but then was silent as he was struck by a green light, which had been heading for Hermione. The bear dropped down and seemed to collapse in on itself, until it was once again a teenage girl, and a much smaller target.

Hermione's wand swung around and a whip of red light lashed out from the end, striking a Death Eater in the face. His mask shattered and he tumbled over backwards. She rolled and scrambled across the ground as curses pelted around her. Ron was next to her in an instant, dragging her back to her feet even as she continued to fire.

Ed clapped his hands and struck the ground, sending out a shockwave and raising a ring of spikes that forced several Death Eaters to step back and actually succeeded in impaling one of them. Ed was turning when something struck him high in the back, throwing him off his feet. The right side of his chest felt numb but he managed to roll out of the way as another shot came at him. He supposed the first curse had hit him mostly on the shoulder mount for his automail. Ed slammed his hands down again and sent a cloud of dust into the air, buying himself a moment to stumble upright.

A shriek cracked through the air, but as Ed whirled, he saw it was from surprise more than pain. Hermione was on her back in the mud and her wand was sailing through the air toward one of their attackers' outstretched hands. The man smirked as he caught it, but then turned to flee as a bear lunged towards him, obviously intending to reclaim it.

Ed ducked another curse and risked a quick scan of the battle field. Ron was still firing away, and the six Death Eaters still standing were doing their best to retreat without being conspicuous about it. Ed smirked for a moment, planning out his next transmutation, and then his feet left the ground. He tried to curl up, to brace for the inevitable hard landing, but he just hung there. His head was still pounding with adrenaline and he spent several confused moments trying to wriggle loose from whatever was holding him up. The sounds of the battle were fading out, not because of a decisive hit by either side, but in anticipation of one.

A few Death Eaters were carefully circling around Hermione and Ron, and those that had fallen (and were still alive) were starting to get back up. Ron was watching the men near him, but Hermione was watching Ed, and her mouth gaped as she saw what was coming up behind him. Ed's feet kicked uselessly, trying to turn so he could see as well. Ron turned then and lashed his wand.

"Finite!" he shouted.

Ed felt something pass through him, and he bobbed a little in the air, but Ron's spell just wasn't strong enough. Ed started to bring his hands together, to knock something loose with some atmospheric alchemy, but his arms froze with three inches of space between them. His body started turning, and after traveling 180 degrees, he stopped, face to face with a monster.

The red eyes and reptilian face didn't worry him too much, as he'd seen chimera in worse condition. Neither did the wand in his hand that glowed faintly, nor the heavy black robes that seemed to steal light from the night around them in a way that was just plain wrong. What caused Ed concern to the point that his heart skipped a few beats in his chest was the way the monster smirked. It clearly said "despite what you may think I've already won".

"Edward Elric?" he hissed as he approached.

Ed thought his tone was faintly amused, which tripped the 'anger' switch in his brain. This usually caused him more trouble than not, but at least it stomped down the shaking animal fear that was trying to take over.

"Who wants to know?" Ed growled.

"I do, of course," Voldemort replied. "And I am quite certain you're him."

Voldemort reached out his free hand and grabbed Ed's chin. Ed would have bitten him if he could've moved his head, but whatever had frozen his hands was working on his neck as well.

"Where is Potter, and where is the Scroll?" he asked, almost politely.

The red eyes in front of him filled his vision; his head ached. Familiar images began popping up in his head. _Harry in the ruins at Godric's Hollow, telling him he couldn't come. Harry setting Inferi ablaze in the cavern. Harry taking the Scroll from his hand and being sucked into it. _Ed tried to shut down the involuntary movie, to push out the foreign presence, but it was impossibly harder than the instinct that had forced Snape out of his mind when he was first captured. He tried to blot out the images of Harry with memories of Hogwarts, of the battle by the Riddle Mansion, even the sight of his house burning down in Resembul. None of that worked.

"And where is the Scroll now?" Voldemort murmured.

Ed felt as if he was being stabbed through the eyes and all of his will power couldn't force a single blink. All it did was cause a choking gargling sound to bubble out of his throat, which Voldemort apparently found entertaining. The stabbing got worse and Ed started to worry that any second his brains would just go flying out the back of his head. Some part of Ed's mind suggested bringing up an image no one could look away from.

Ed thought of the Gate.

His intention had only been to bring up something really distracting to buy a few seconds to think of something better. His memories of the Gate weren't even that clear, only thousands of grasping arms pulling him in and then apart and those disembodied eyes. Of course, later he would conclude that showing an evil megalomaniac the source and hub of all Alchemic power was probably just as bad as telling him where his current hedge against mortality was. That was later, though. At that precise moment, Ed couldn't really think. Things were rushing through his head too quickly for anything as mundane as thought to come into play.

Suddenly Ed's eyes were suddenly his own again. Voldemort's hand dropped away from his face, and the Dark Lord took a step back. Ed felt a shadow falling over him like a wet sheet, but he couldn't turn to look for its source. He didn't really want to, either, but another step of retreat by Voldemort cost him the hold he had on Ed, and the teenager dropped to the ground. He rolled over onto his knees, staring up at the huge black monolith that was taking form. He pressed his hands together and squeezed his eyes shut, doing his best to dissipate any energy he might have accessed in his disoriented state. When he opened them again, there was nothing but an empty field before him.

For just a moment the Gate had manifested. Ed wasn't sure if he or Voldemort had summoned it, but its presence was enough to know that things were about to get much worse. He pushed that knowledge aside, and made use of his now-functioning limbs. Voldemort was still blinking off whatever after-images the Gate had left in his eyes. He got his feet under him and charged.

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Ron Weasley had a lot of memories burned into his mind, things so shocking or awesome or terrifying that even on his dying day they'd still be with him. Never before had he accumulated so many such memories in a single hour. First he'd seen Hermione tearing her way through a platoon of Death Eaters with a savage fury he hadn't thought her capable of. And then he saw the Dark Lord Voldemort, in living color not twenty feet away. Then he saw a huge indescribable something appear behind Edward as Voldemort tried to peel information out of his mind. What happened next, though, topped everything he'd witnessed in his life thus far.

Edward Elric kicked He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in the groin.

As the much taller man crumpled in pain, Ed's automail fist delivered an uppercut that laid the Dark Lord out flat on his back. The Death Eaters who had been waiting for their Master to finish the hard work, now scrambled forward, but they weren't fast enough to matter. Ed clapped his hands and his right forearm glowed and reformed into a blade.

As Voldemort brought up his wand, the blade came down.

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**Author's Note:** Sorry about the long wait. I had fallen into a plot hole of unimaginable depths, and had to battle cave mutants, giant worms, and a corrupt mining corporation to escape. The next chapter should be out a little quicker. (In weeks, not months) Don't forget to review!


	21. Chapter 21

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 21: A Party You Don't Want to Miss**

From above the eastern coast of Scotland many unnatural things caught the eye. There was a column of smoke still rising from the wrecked trailer on the edge of the highway. From the wreck there was a trail of scorched earth, rents in the ground and unnatural spikes of compacted soil leading to a scrubby field, surrounded on all sides by low rolling hills. At the field's center, flashing lights led one further in, revealing a handful of human beings, engaged in a mortal competition of speed.

Ed was faster.

The blade came down, its point jamming into Voldemort's chest a little left of center. The larger man was knocked back against the ground, but there was no blood. For a moment Ed stared at the tip of the blade, apparently unable to push through the fabric of the Dark Lord's cloak. Then he was looking cross-eyed at a wand with green light burning at the end. It flashed.

Ed bent completely backwards as the killing curse shot over him. He turned the motion into a roll, flipping over and crouching. He brought his hands together. If the blade couldn't get through the cloak, he'd just have to get rid of the cloak. Scar's deconstruction trick required knowledge of the material being destroyed, and Ed had no idea what he was taking apart, though he assumed it was organic. If there was overspill it might just damage Voldemort as well.

Voldemort had found his feet and was pointing his wand in Ed's face again. He seemed too close to miss but Ed sprang forward under his guard and slammed his palms against the Dark Lord's chest. There was a flash of purple light as the reaction began, but Voldemort vanished and Ed fell forward on his knees as there was no longer anything to push against.

He rolled instinctively to the side, and saw Voldemort a dozen yards away, wand raised. There were hand-shaped holes in his robes, through which pale flesh showed. Ed prepared to charge in again, but what he saw behind the evil wizard froze him in his tracks.

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Severus Snape smiled slightly as he saw terror flash across Edward Elric's face, knowing he was the cause, rather than the Dark Lord. He'd been watching for several minutes as the boy challenged the most powerful dark wizard of the age with muggle combat. It seemed to be going in the boy's favor until he tried to use a blade. The Dark Lord, though never worried about being struck by his subordinates, had treated his clothing with _Brutus' Salve_, a rather complex potion that kept one from getting stabbed in the back or any other portion of the body it covered. If the boy had gone for the face, he might have won. Snape almost sighed. Despite his delegation to unwitting parties, the task was falling to him again, anyway.

"Missing something, Mr. Elric?" Snape asked, as with a flick of his wand he dropped the unmoving body of Alphonse at the Dark Lord's feet.

Ed clapped his hands and slapped them to the ground. The earth began to rumble, but the Dark Lord's wand flicked up and a shockwave blew Ed off his feet. Whatever transmutation he'd been planning to use to free his brother faded away. The small teenager landed badly on his metal arm, and Snape heard something in it snap.

Ed staggered upright, his flesh-and-blood hand going to inspect the other. A plate on the back of his right arm had popped up, and though he attempted to press it back down, Snape and Voldemort could both see what was inside it--a crumpled scroll. Snape wondered why the Dark Lord wanted it so badly, and why he seemed unwilling to damage it.

The Dark Lord's wand flicked again, in an unspoken summoning charm. The Scroll burst from the boy's arm, but Ed's other hand caught the end of it and it unrolled. The Dark Lord stepped forward but did not pick up his end, instead stepping on it with a thick boot. Snape wondered at this, too. The Dark Lord and the boy engaged in a staring contest, which seemed unusually free of Legilimency. Snape looked at the Dark Lord again, who wasn't speaking, so Snape supposed he wouldn't be tortured for interrupting. He gave Alphonse Elric a kick in the side, rolling the boy through the mud to gain Ed's attention.

"You can hand over the Scroll, Elric, or you can watch your younger brother gutted, be overpowered, and lose the Scroll anyway," Snape drawled.

"You're going to kill us, anyway," Ed said through gritted teeth.

"Not you, Elric," the Dark Lord said quietly. "Not until I have access to "the Gate" I saw in your mind. I might even consider sparing your sibling should you prove sufficiently helpful with that. I know you've fallen in with blood traitor filth, but you don't seem as foolish as they. You know when you can't win, don't you, Edward?"

Without even looking, the Dark Lord pointed his wand at Alphonse and a green light flashed. The boy flailed and shrieked and then flopped back on the ground, unconscious again without the curse overcoming the sedative potion he'd breathed.

"Let go of the Scroll," the Dark Lord repeated.

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Ron saw Ed's face twitch. He and Hermione were trying to keep their eyes on the Death Eaters around them. He thought he could have taken at least one of them, but that would have drawn Voldemort's focus, and they had no spells that could even aspire to deal with that.

He watched Ed's hand shake. Ron knew he couldn't make a choice like that. If they had his little sister he'd hand over the damn thing too, even if the world was hanging in the balance. But it would be a doomed gesture. It was equally obvious they weren't going to make it. Ed's fingers tightened around the end of the Scroll, crumpling it as if he could wring the right answer out of it. Ron saw only one way out, and that was to make Ed's choice for him.

Ron had done this before, taken the fall so Hermione and Harry could continue on, to stop Voldemort. This was the same but so much harder. To win, they'd have to give up Harry, and hope someone else would find the last Horcrux and finish things. He knew there was a prophecy, but people were born at the end of July all the time. He had to think about what Harry might want, what was at stake, what might happen in the next instant if he just prayed and waited it out.

Ron flicked his wand, and threw fire.

Ed and Voldemort saw it coming and leapt away from each other, but neither relinquished their hold on the Scroll, unraveled between them. Though the ancient parchment was soaked and muddy, it lit up like a torch.

Ron heard Al shout, apparently much more conscious than he let on. The ground around the boy convulsed, and Voldemort was forced to dodge as spikes exploded out of the earth. Snape grabbed at the boy and got a mule kick in the chest for his trouble. Al rolled away from the curse Snape sent at him, dodging and weaving to get back to his brother's side.

Ron scrambled through the mud on his hands and knees, dragging Hermione with him. The Scroll lashed around in a serpentine dance, still bright with flames long after it should have been consumed. Voldemort's wand flicked out, hitting the fire with spell after spell. Ron wondered if he could feel that bit of his soul being eaten up by the flames. He prayed to everything that might be watching over them that Harry couldn't feel it.

There was a dull thump and suddenly the fire was gone. Standing in the rain of embers and ash, a lone figure shook itself.

"Harry?" Ron called as the figure turned slowly to observe the battlefield.

He didn't seem to hear. The Death Eaters trained their wands on him. At first Ron thought Harry was covered in dirt, but as the other teenager came around to face him, Ron saw it was some kind of writing. One of the Death Eaters fired off a curse, and without batting an eye, Harry's wand flicked up and sent it right back at him. The man fell and did not get up.

"Interesting," Harry said, with something funny in his voice.

"Who are you?" Voldemort asked, almost politely.

"You don't remember me, Riddle?" Harry asked, again talking as if he were using the wrong part of his vocal cords. "You left a piece of your soul with me. Are you quite certain I am unfamiliar?"

"Ravenclaw," Voldemort murmured.

Ron looked to Hermione.

"She must be possessing Harry, as Voldemort did with Ginny our second year," she whispered.

"Is Harry in there, too?" Ron asked.

"I hope so, now that you've burned the Scroll," she added a little accusingly.

The Gryffindors traded looks with the Elrics. The teenagers watched the Death Eaters, waiting for someone to take the first shot. It all seemed to depend on what Ravenclaw did next.

"You realize what this means?" Voldemort asked.

"What's it mean?" Ron whispered, as Ravenclaw and He-who-must-be-cryptic stared at each other.

Hermione swallowed. "I think he means that if she gives up control of Harry's body, she'll cease to exist."

"So he thinks she'll join his side, because we'd try to get Harry back?" Ron whispered.

"I suppose. Her only other option is-"

CRACK!

The sound startled them all as the person standing in the middle of the field disapparated, despite the wards the Death Eaters had put in place. Voldemort looked rather upset, and as Ravenclaw was no longer there as the target of his ire, his gaze moved to the four teenagers.

"Oh, crap!" Ed growled.

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Draco sat up in the hall and groaned. It was dark, but not the unnatural dark he'd created before Snape knocked him out. He heard footsteps all around.

"Awake?" someone shouted from very nearby.

He blinked for a confused moment before realizing there was an Auror standing over him.

"Snape! He took Al!" Draco said. "I tried to stop him. None of the alarms went off! Where were you?"

The Auror blinked for a moment, looking thoroughly contrite.

"Snape deactivated or bypassed most of them. Guess he knew where they were on account of him working here. We're searching the area now," the Auror said. "Don't worry. We'll find your brother."

Draco ground his teeth. "You couldn't find your own ass with two hands and a diagram!" Draco bellowed.

Another hand seized his wrist and pulled him around.

"I'll take him to the headmistress," Ginny Weasley told the Auror, waving a Prefect badge with Ron's name on it.

The man didn't notice and didn't argue. They rushed up the stairs, passing more baffled Ministry workers as they moved, not towards the headmistress's office, but toward the room of requirement. She pulled him inside and shoved him against the wall so hard his head cracked against it.

"What the )&# happened?!" Ginny shrieked.

"Al and I were talking in my room in the hospital wing. Snape got us with drowsing mist. I was only out for a few minutes. I grabbed a few things from the hospital stores and followed him down here. I think I managed to splash Al with stimulant strong enough to counter it, but I'm not sure."

"Why didn't you call for help?" she said. "There are guards around."

"I thought I could get him on my own," Draco said.

Ginny shoved him again and glared. "I know you weren't trying to play hero, you slimy little bastard! You didn't want Snape to get caught!"

He looked away. There wasn't much he could say to that.

"Do you know where they took him?" Ginny asked, fishing in the pocket of her robes for something.

She took out a coin and pressed her wand to it. It glowed for a moment, before she put it away. He realized she was calling up the rest of Dumbledore's Army, the little dueling club from his fifth year. And probably planning to run off and fight the Dark Lord as they'd done fifth year as well.

"You're out of your mind!" Draco declared.

"We aren't just going to sit here while Al gets tortured and killed. I'm not, at least. Where would Snape take him?" she demanded again.

"I don't know. The only bases I've worked at have been destroyed," Draco said. "And I already told McGonagall where the others I'd heard of might be."

"What about that thing on your arm?" she said. "Harry said, when they grabbed him after the Cup, that the mark called Voldemort's servants right to him. That's probably where Snape is taking Al right now!"

"That's suicidal!" Draco said. "It would drop me right in his lap, and then what? I'd get killed and that wouldn't help Al at all!"

"You filthy little coward!" Ginny shrieked, and raised her wand to cast a curse. Draco futilely brought up his hands.

"Am I interrupting?" a faint voice asked.

They both looked over at the door, and saw Luna Lovegood watching them, with a half-dozen other D.A. members behind her.

"Snape snuck into the castle and kidnapped Al," Ginny said. "And this little freak won't tell me where he took him!"

"Well, shouting will only help if he has a Golingnax infestation in his brain, and really, he's far too pale for that to be the case," Luna said.

"Luna, we don't have time for that!" Ginny yelled.

"That is very true, Ms. Weasley," a stern voice called from the hall outside.

The D.A. parted to make way for Professor McGonagall.

"We have need of Mister…Elric," the headmistress said.

Ginny looked like she was going to argue, but apparently remembered in time that everyone still thought Draco was Ed. Draco wondered if the kids in the hall had heard her shouting. It probably wouldn't matter now, since Snape knew and would probably soon have reason to reveal that fact.

"We are going to my office, now," McGonagall said. "The rest of you return to your dormitories. It is after hours."

Most of the students left, but Ginny and Luna followed along, the former with far more purpose than the latter. Apparently McGonagall noticed, but her glare failed to affect either girl.

"Ms. Lovegood, Don't you have somewhere you should be?" McGonagall asked.

"Well, yes Professor," the girl said.

Luna just stood there staring at her.

"Shall I go then?" Luna asked as McGonagall's eye started to tic.

The Headmistress nodded.

"Ms. Weasley, you are dismissed," the headmistress said.

"No," the Weasley girl said.

"Excuse me?" McGonagall said.

"I'm not leaving. I know something is happening, and whether you believe me or not, I can help. So you can let me come or you can expel me and I'll catch up with Ron and Harry on my own!"

"Immature threats will get you nowhere," McGonagall replied.

"Don't talk to me like I'm dumb!" Ginny demanded. "Something big is going on! I didn't see one Order wizard in the halls looking for Al! They've all gone somewhere else. If they're busy, who are you going to send?"

"I suppose you may come, since it seems only a blasting hex will dislodge you, but if I believe you have heard something you shouldn't have, I will not hesitate to have you obliviated."

"Fine by me," the girl said.

Draco glared at the two as they proceeded to frog march him to the Headmistress's office.

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

They were crowded throughout the office, sitting on tables and leaning against the bookshelves and walls. Draco had been under worse glares, but they usually weren't all pressed into such a small space. It looked like half the Order of the Phoenix was there, and at least a third of them were Weasleys. He'd been forced to memorize their names and likeness as part of his Death Eater duties, but couldn't recall most of that now.

Draco was pushed into a chair before the Headmistress's desk, which was serving as a bench for Kingsley Shacklebolt, Tonks, and the werewolf, Lupin. Their eyes were trying to drill holes in his head. Ginny drew the attention of most of the Weasleys, though, for which Draco was (though he'd never admit it) grateful.

"Mr. Malfoy?" Shacklebolt asked.

Draco nodded.

"Are you still interested in helping in the fight against Voldemort?" the Auror asked.

"Never was," Draco answered. "I just want to get out of his way."

That drew some grumbles, an increase in the intensity of glares, and slap on the back of the head from Ginny Weasley.

"I've already told McGonagall all I know," he added.

"It's not what you know," Tonks said. "It's what you can do."

"The Order had detected a large number of Death Eaters gathering in Eastern Scotland," Shacklebolt continued. "We believe Voldemort is with them, and we believe that Mr. Potter is somehow involved in it as well. We have no reliable means to get through the apparition barrier they have put up, almost a hundred miles across. We've sent agents in on brooms, but it will take them far too long to find them in that, much less put together a significant counterstrike. The Ministry isn't even going to try until the wards are brought down. We need your help, Mr. Malfoy."

"I can't do a side-along-apparition that big, and even if I could, he'd know how many were coming with me. I think he can redirect us if he thinks something is off," Draco said.

"That's not what we need," Shacklebolt said.

Tonks slid off the desk, revealing a large metal box that had been sitting behind her. She pushed it in front of Draco and shoved the top open with a clang. Inside was large metal cuff with all sorts of horrid looking needles and clamps welded to it.

"What is that?" Draco said.

"It's a Dark Mark cloner," Tonks said. "A friend of ours nicked it from the Department of Mysteries a few months ago. It hasn't worked yet, but we think we've got the rest of the bugs out."

"What does it do?" Draco asked.

"Best case scenario," Tonks said. "We get temporary copies of your mark and we pop in past the wards to save the day. Worst case, your arm blows up and the rest of us walk in past the wards."

"Have you tried it before?" Draco demanded.

"Well, yes," Tonks said. "That's how we know your arm blowing up is one of the options, but in those cases the Death Eater didn't exactly let us make the copies. We think it may work better if the guinea pig isn't fighting us over it."

"Do it!" Ginny ordered, kicking the back of his chair.

"You do it, Weasley!" he shot back nonsensically.

She kicked his chair again. "I bet that's where they took Al, and you owe his brother and Harry anyway, so do it, you little weasel! You owe Al! He's a bit of a doormat but he's the closest thing you have to a friend!"

Were they even friends? Draco didn't really know the kid well enough to say. Al was nice, even though it was apparent he knew what Draco had done. Did he really want to be friends with someone who had such poor judgment? Snape had been right about a few things, one gesture wouldn't make up for betraying…what? The people who ordered him around? Which side was that? Stay loyal to your family and friends, (who did unforgivable things to others, but obviously cared about him) and be damned. Betray them for people who already condemned you and be damned as well. He put his head in his hands.

It was fairly obvious that no matter what he did, he couldn't win. There was no way out and nowhere he could flee that his choices couldn't follow. Except maybe there was. If he could get through this and help the Elrics get their alchemic cylinder working, perhaps they would take him with them when he left. Al hadn't talked that much about his home, besides mentioning there were wars going on, and serial killers running around and half of them worked for their government. It sounded absolutely mad. But no one there would know him. Maybe, maybe there was something to hope for.

"Alright," Draco said, holding out his arm. "I'll do it."

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

Things were not going well.

Ron would have commented on that fact if he could spare the air. Hermione had lost her wand ages ago and was forced to fight as a bear or not at all. The couple of lessons in hand-to-hand Ed had given them when they took stretch breaks over the past couple of weeks weren't really enough to make her useful otherwise. Ed and Al were doing slightly better, blowing things up and kicking people in the face, but another dozen Death Eaters had arrived immediately after Snape did.

Voldemort had apparently decided to step back and let his goons take them out, but Ron knew he'd probably step in and finish the good guys off if it looked like his people were beaten. So in the end all they were doing was stalling and hoping Harry got control of his body and came back to help, or some kind of miracle. Ron snorted and then flinched as a near-miss peppered his face with shrapnel.

There were another dozen popping sounds from off to the left and Ron turned, crouched, with his wand raised. He supposed he shouldn't have snorted at the miracle option. Four of his older brothers came running towards him, and a barrage of curses took out the Death Eaters that had been hounding him up and down the battlefield. Behind them two dozen other Order members appeared, a few rubbing at something smeared on their left arms. And supported by two of them was a slumped figure which appeared to be a second Edward Elric. Ron didn't stop to think about it as he ducked some friendly fire.

"It's about bloody time!" Ron growled, using the moment of cover to wipe the blood from his eyes.

"We'd have come sooner-" Fred said.

"-but dear little Ginny-" George continued.

"-had to beat Malfoy into submission first!"

"She was right put out when she couldn't come."

Ron nodded distractedly, and the three of them ducked as a blasting hex flew at them.

"Don't suppose you've seen Harry anywhere?" Ron asked as he sent a blasting curse at a Death Eater his brothers had missed.

"No," they said in stereo. "Why?"

"He got possessed by Rowena Ravenclaw and took off," Ron said.

Fred and George exchanged looks.

"How…"

"-odd."

Ron was going to say something else but was forced to send a warning shot at Tonks.

"Don't shoot the bear!" Ron demanded.

"Why?" she called back over her shoulder.

Hermione turned back into her human form so she could duck under a curse. She scrambled to her feet, tripping on the shredded hem of her jeans as she charged the man who'd attacked her. In a flash she was a bear again and the man went flying back into another jerk in a skull mask.

"Never mind!" Tonks said.

Voldemort chose then to get involved. The Dark Lord raised his wand above his head and a pulse of green light shot into the air. It made the air crackle for a moment, but Ron didn't feel about to drop dead, so he supposed it didn't matter much. But then Fred had to go and open his mouth.

"I do believe that was a rather large summoning spell," Fred said.

"Summoning what?" Ron asked.

George just pointed at the hills to the west. Ron squinted, and saw dozens of large lumbering figures blurring into existence. The creatures started towards the fight without a moment's hesitation.

"How'd he do that?" George asked.

"I'd guess he had portkeys attached to them and that big pulse activated them," Charlie called. "That's what I'd have done at least, were I bringing in monsters. I wish we had some dragons," he added wistfully.

The rest of the Weasleys exchanged looks that did not imply agreement. Ron looked back to the looming shadows.

"Bloody hell, those better not be trolls," Ron grumbled.

"No, little brother, not to worry-" Fred said.

"-they're only giants," George concluded.

"No, wait, there are trolls too," Fred said.

"Oh, my mistake," George replied.

"I hate you both."

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

Ravenclaw went to the only place she knew to be unchanged, at least at its core. The boy's mind held echoes of her library, and as she slid through the wards she'd designed a thousand years ago, she smiled. All around were books. She heard shouts in the corridors of Hogwarts but paid no mind. A thousand years had gone by, but she still had this place.

_-You left my friends!-_

She frowned and pushed the boy back down. His will was strong, but she'd forgotten more than he would ever know about legilimency. The bubble she'd made in his mind kept him contained except for the shouting.

She walked to the nearest shelf and took down the heaviest volume she could find. She sat at a table and began to read. Peripherally she was aware of the boy's agony, but it was all his own. Somehow Harry Potter had absorbed the bit of Riddle's soul bound to her and freed her. Now whatever magic had allowed the boy to realign Riddle's soul was working on the new piece Potter had acquired. Ravenclaw had expected the process to be more destructive, but besides the obvious pain it was causing the boy, he didn't seem to be losing much to the ongoing conversion. She was surprised, and would research the matter later.

If the bits of 'filtered' soul were returned to Voldemort, would they change him? Potter now had more of Voldemort's soul than Voldemort did. Still, the mind shouldn't be underestimated. And Voldemort's mind was very strong despite the horrible alterations he'd made to his body and soul. She frowned. She should find out. If she could push those bits of soul back into Riddle, along with Potter, she'd have this body all to herself.

_-You left my friends! Traitor!-_

She sighed and pushed him down again. He really shouldn't be acting so surprised. She'd clearly explained to him that her knowledge was more important than any one life.

_-Is it more important than the whole world, you dithering idiot?-_

She focused inwardly to reply. _–No one is that strong. The world is in no danger of destruction from Voldemort's influence. It will simply change.-_

"I was going to ask you what you were doing here, Harry, but clearly you have Gorchoge's Syndrome," a faint voice said.

Ravenclaw whirled and saw a rather walleyed blond girl standing at the end of the table. She was a bit surprised that the girl had snuck up on her, and pushed down the inner dialogue so she could focus on the possible threat she presented.

"Gorchoge's?" Ravenclaw asked.

The girl had Ravenclaw's crest on her uniform, but her manner hinted at madness or a complete absence of focus, neither of which were welcome in her house.

"It's a horrible disease resulting from too many souls in one body," the girl said. "Shouldn't you be at the fight?"

_-Luna! It's not me!-_

The boy howled inside his mind, but the words never reached his lips. Ravenclaw saw echoes in his mind of the girl now, by the arch in the Department of Mysteries. Apparently she was a competent fighter for all her apparent flightiness.

"What fight?" Ravenclaw asked.

"The fight against Voldemort," Luna said. "Everyone's gone off to save you—well, almost everyone. I'm still here, after all. It would be rude for you not to be there, you know, even if you are Ravenclaw."

"It's not my fight any longer," Ravenclaw said. "How do you know me?"

"Who else would you be?" Luna said. "Your elbow is starting to smudge, by the way."

Ravenclaw looked down and saw the spells she'd transcribed onto the boy's skin were fading.

"I need parchment! Quickly!" Ravenclaw demanded.

Luna fetched her some from the librarian's desk. With a flick of her wand, the spells flowed from skin back onto paper. She stared down at them, stunned that they had slipped from her mind. Had the girl not called her attention to them, she might have lost them all as she wandered the library. She wondered at her lack of focus. How could something like that have slipped her mind?

-_It's not your mind-_

Harry's declaration was accurate, at least. This wasn't her mind. It was disorganized and impulsive. It wasn't very suitable at all, really.

_-So get out!-_

She focused inwardly again. _–I did not want to leave my scroll in the first place. Do you really think I will simply accept oblivion now?-_

_-Your spells are safe; I thought that's what you cared about!-_

_-I never said I wanted to cease to exist, and that's the only way to ensure your freedom-_

_-I don't care about me! Go back and save my friends and I'll stop fighting with you!-_

Potter's voice was becoming louder, and she strengthened the barrier that separated them. She considered it for a moment. Voldemort couldn't possibly be that much stronger than she, and she doubted he was half as clever. Still, if she did go back and retrieve Potter's friends, she wouldn't gain anything from it. They would attempt to free Potter, and since they still possessed 2/7 of Voldemort's soul, they couldn't beat him without removing those.

_-If we get the last piece of Voldemort's soul out of him, I'll be done. If we don't take him out, he'll still come after me, and you by default. You know it! Maybe it won't be the end of the world, but he's a threat to you, and that's what you really care about, isn't it?-_

Ravenclaw started a bit as the boy's thoughts rose up and mixed with hers. As if sensing her uncertainty, he got louder.

_-You got out of his wards! If you can knock them down, the Ministry and the Order can help! They'll do all the work. You've only got to get that bit of his soul when it's blown out of his body. You can do that, can't you?-_

She supposed that would be possible. The soul might even be drawn right to this body, since so much of it was already there. All she had to do was avoid being injured herself, which shouldn't be that hard. Then again, she might be able to avoid Voldemort entirely for the rest of her…Potter's life. But research would be so much easier without the threat of a mad wizard hanging over her head, and he was most definitely a threat. Just look at what he had done to her cavern, filling it with-

**_-You can't sit here and think about it all night!-_**

Potter's thoughts interrupted hers again.

_-I suppose it wouldn't hurt to pop in and see how things are going_- she allowed.

Luna was still standing there watching her. Ravenclaw handed the pile of parchments to the girl.

"Guard these with your life," she ordered.

"I think I'd rather use my wand," Luna said. "It's easier to cast spells with that. This means you're going to the fight, then? I suppose you were probably just having a very interesting conversation in your head, but I couldn't really hear it."

"Yes," Ravenclaw said. "I'm going."

"Would you mind taking this with you?" Luna asked, handing her a galleon that was heavy with spells. "We might want to send a few people along to help later."

Harry identified the coin as a Dumbledore's Army message token. Though she didn't think a bunch of students would add much to the fight besides corpses, she accepted it. Ravenclaw pushed through the holes in Hogwarts' wards, and apparated away before her Luna-related headache could get worse.

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

Luna hummed to herself as she walked toward Gryffindor tower. She was fairly certain Ginny would be sent there after the Headmistress told her she couldn't go to the fight.

A small fraction of her mind was on putting one foot in front of the other, and the rest was on the spells in her hands. Luna's mother had been trying to recreate the third one on the list, _the Sight_, magic meant to turn a normal person into a clairvoyant. The unsuccessful attempt had blown away half their house and taken her mother's life. She looked over the combination of potions, charms and required Arithmancy, noting how it would be almost impossible to stably produce the spell even with the instructions.

The Portrait that guarded Gryffindor tower was rather obtuse about Luna's requests for admittance, but a third year eventually left in search of snacks (despite the recent kidnapping), and she was able to dart in before the door closed behind him. Fortunately, Ginny and most of the Gryffindor D.A. were lurking in their common room, so no one had to be fetched.

"How'd you get in?" Seamus Finnegan asked.

"Through the door," Luna replied. "Ginny, Harry and Rowena Ravenclaw were just in the library. They're heading off to the fight and since you said you wanted to go, I had them take along a D.A. coin, for you to home in on."

"What?" Ginny asked.

"Harry and Ravenclaw were just in the library. We can go after them if we want," Luna repeated.

"Are you serious?" Ginny asked. "This isn't one of your flying crickpinwiggles or something?"

"I don't know what you mean by that, but yes, they were just there. Apparently Ravenclaw can apparate through the wards around the school. Are we going to the fight? Because if not, I wanted to get started on these spells she gave me. They seem rather fascinating."

There were a few more questions from the assembled Gryffindors about whether or not she was making this all up, and then further discussion about whether or not it was a good idea to rush out and challenge a dark wizard who could kill them all faster than they could blink. Finally, they decided to call up the rest of the D.A. in the other houses, and put it all to a vote.(Though Ginny said she was going alone if she had to.) When they were all packed in the common room, about ten minutes later, Ginny called them to order.

"Alright, you lot!" Ginny bellowed. "I'm sure you've all heard. Harry and Voldemort are fighting it out as we speak. And I say we get out there on Harry's side! I admit it's going to be a mess, and the Order might kick us out as soon as we get there. We might even be blown to bits or hit with the killing curse the moment we apparate in-"

"Ginny, I thought you were trying to convince us to come," Dean said.

Ginny glared. "I just don't want anyone complaining to me if they end up dead."

"What can we even do?" shouted a Hufflepuff whose name she hadn't caught.

"The Order's taking care of it, aren't they?"

"We'll be expelled!"

"I can't apparate yet!"

"Will there be kappas there? I don't like those things, they're creepy!"

"No!" Ginny said. "Listen, damn it! Listen!"

Ginny seemed to have lost quite a bit of her steam though, and the room was filled with babbling. Luna frowned as the volume of unorganized discussion rose. This really wasn't getting anything done. After a moment's consideration she pointed her wand at the ceiling.

"Incendio," she said.

Everyone in the room flinched and ducked as the spout of flame struck the ceiling. They all turned to stare at her.

"I don't suppose any of you have noticed all the Great Back-looping Noxes in the room? You know, the only way to get rid of them is to move, so let's do that shall, we? Everyone who wants to stay, go back to your dorms, all those who want to go should start walking to the gates so we can apparate. We can discuss strategy on the way, oh, and we should get Hagrid too, as he is very large and would probably be good at smashing dark wizards," she finished.

"Luna's right!" Ginny shouted. "If you're going, let's go!"

Ginny caught Luna's elbow and led the way out of the tower. Luna tucked the spells into her copy of the Quibbler and put that in the inside pocket of her robes. She looked back and saw quite a few people were following. They passed a few Ministry workers on their way out, but apparently McGonagall wasn't around.

"Thanks, Luna," Ginny said. "I'm just not as good at this stuff as Harry is."

"Well, you know, Harry isn't really that good at this, either. I think people just like him because he's so tragically heroic. Or perhaps it's because he wears glasses. I've noticed people with glasses are frequently thought to be more competent than they really are. Perhaps you should get glasses as well," Luna said.

Ginny stopped in bafflement for a moment and then rushed after her toward Hagrid's hut.

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

"Hey, big brother?" Al asked. "If you have a spare moment, can you transmute a chain for me, with a sort of flat handle with a general array engraved in the end? I've been practicing something. Please?"

Ed avoided grumbling at his brother for wasting too much time on politeness when they were under fire, as that would just waste more time. He clapped and pressed his hands to the earth. The soil didn't have much iron in it, so he had to put a lot more power into it than he wanted to, but in the end he managed to transmute what Al had asked for, handle and all.

Al swung it around once, testing the weight, and then lashed out, striking one of the hissing goblin-like creatures that had begun to spring out of the ground around them. As soon as the "Order" arrived, Voldemort had summoned up another group of freakish creatures, and once again, they were reduced to a battle of attrition, with Voldemort sitting back and smirking as the two sides tore into each other. A few Order wizards had taken shots at the Dark Lord, but he'd sent them right back at their casters, and their side was down by two. The others were reluctant to try after that. Well, Ed would have tried, if he didn't have to watch Al's back.

There was a sudden loud explosion that rattled the air all around them, and all the people and a few of the creatures ducked in alarm. The night sky above them turned green for a moment, and then yellow streaked across the green, breaking it up in a shower of sparks that vanished long before they reached the earth. Ed wondered if it was Voldemort calling up more goons and freaks, but when Ed looked over at the Dark Lord, he was obviously pissed.

"The bloody wards are down!" bellowed one of the Weasleys, the one with the scars…Bob or Brad? No, it was Bill. His head was starting to swim from using far too much alchemy in a short amount of time. Ed shook his head, and struggled to focus again on the crazy evil wizard who now appeared to be looking at him.

"You're an alchemist, aren't you?" asked a voice from behind him.

Ed whirled and saw Harry standing behind him. He was no longer covered in writing, but he obviously wasn't himself yet. Ed nodded as he dodged another blast of green light.

"I want to talk to you when this is over," the possessed Harry said. "I don't think I've seen your sort of alchemy before."

"That's fine," Ed said, looking back at Voldemort, who was now stalking towards them. "You mind taking care of him first?"

"If I must," sort-of-Harry said.

He raised his wand and sent out a glowing pulse that scorched the ground. Voldemort vanished from its path and reappeared twenty yards to the right. The two wizards closed and began exchanging spells with blinding speed. More strange creatures were popping out of the ground, and Ed was pretty certain he could see a group of Inferi shambling down a hill to the north. He and Al ducked as red lightning tore up the ground around them. Ed grabbed his brother's wrist and pulled him further from the magical slugfest. Another shockwave threatened to lift them off their feet and sent several of the goblin things tumbling past them.

"Harry's back?!" Ron called from a dozen yards away.

"Yeah!" Ed called as he and Al dodged another killing curse. "Think we'll win now?"

Ron was about to reply when sort-of-Harry pointed his wand in the air and conjured up a flock of black birds that swarmed and pecked at the Dark Lord. Thus blinded, he was unable to dodge sort-of-Harry's next shot: a green light that lifted him off his feet and sent him tumbling, but apparently wasn't strong enough to kill.

"Don't know," Ron said after ducking a slow-moving blasting hex from a duel halfway across the field. "But damn, that looks cool."

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

The Minister of Magic supposed he should be thankful that this was happening in a random section of the countryside, rather than a Death Eater base. Even as he watched, another wave of Voldemort's allies apparated in. Scrimgeour saw two of them carrying a trunk, which sprang open, dumping half a dozen bogarts down the hillside. A wave of stunning spells took out the men, but the creatures they released swarmed away, adding to the chaos.

He saw the Elric brothers back to back in a melee of Manticores, Kappas, Inferi and ghouls. The diminutive teenagers were tearing a bloody rent in the mass of dark creatures. The one with the metal arm sent anything that approached them tumbling back in a spray of blood. The other lashed a chain that transformed, as it traveled, from circular links into razor sharp strands that flayed their attackers to the bone.

A pack of Weasleys was pounding their way through a group of Death Eaters who were trying to form up for an attack.

The Minister's attention was drawn momentarily to a bear that knocked a troll to the ground before transforming into a girl who gracelessly rolled away from the wild swings of her opponent's club.

He spotted a few Aurors amid the chaos, but most of the Ministry workers were still trying to contain a Dementor attack in London, or trying to deal with a kidnapping at Hogwarts. As Alphonse Elric was here, he could probably call the latter off.

Another wave of apparitions came right next to him, and the Minister and his retainer whirled, wands raised. They held fire when they saw two dozen teenagers stagger out of thin air. Some were still in pajamas with coats and shoes thrown on top, while others wore an assortment of Quidditch gear. A few had brooms strapped to their backs, and two boys carried a trunk that rocked and bucked until they opened the lid, releasing a dozen bludgers onto the battlefield. The Minister thought perhaps this was some sort of mad stunt until he saw each and every bludger hone in on a person in a dark robe and skull mask. The spelled sports equipment did its best to break bones.

"Watch out for those," a red-haired girl warned him. "The recognition spells aren't that strong."

The Minister glared at her, recognizing another Weasley. He was about to demand they get the hell out of the way but the girl spoke first in a louder voice.

"Triangle formation, forward two offense! Rear guard, keep your eyes open and your patronus charm going! We're getting Ron and Hermione and moving to the hill over there. Questions? No? Move it!"

The teenagers formed up into an offensive wedge and waded in. Most of their curses were simple stunners and paralyzers, but they moved with such coordination that they mowed through the five Death Eaters who tried to block their path. He realized belatedly that Hogwarts' half-giant groundskeeper was behind them, blocking anything that might attack from behind.

The Minister searched for the ones responsible for this mess, and on the opposite side of the field he saw them. They weren't in the center of things as he expected, but he supposed that made sense. The magic they were conjuring was enough to vaporize anyone normal in its backwash. The Minister was forced to turn up the screen on his omnioculars just to tell who was who.

Voldemort, pale as a corpse, lunged and swayed, ignoring his smoldering robes as he lashed out with green lights and black vapors.

Potter, in worn muggle clothes, dodged and retaliated with waves of red light and fire.

"Is there anyone else to call in?" The Minister asked one of his aides.

"No sir," he replied. "Not unless we leave the prison and headquarters completely unguarded."

"Right, let's see what's left for us, then."

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**Author's note:** I'm trying to get the rest of this up before book seven comes out. I hope the quality isn't suffering. Feel free to leave me a review one way or the other. Sorry there wasn't much Harry in this chapter. He gets some big lines next time, promise!

**Next Chapter: **_Honest Traitors_


	22. Chapter 22

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 22: Honest Traitors**

Ed was almost staggering as the last creature fell. It had claws and a stupid looking red hat on. He couldn't remember what it was called. It didn't matter anyway. He looked around, just to be sure, but nothing near them was moving. Lights flashed from a hundred feet away, but the battle was getting more and more spread out, as people and creatures showed up, challenged, and searched for space to retreat in. Ed was starting to think a temporary retreat wasn't such a bad idea. He looked to Al, who was reeling up his transfigured chain with shaking arms.

He wanted to ask Al if he was alright, but neither of them could catch their breath well enough to speak. Ed pointed across the battlefield to the base of a small hill, where Ginny and the D.A. were crouched. Al nodded, and keeping low, they hurried to them. They were recognized and not cursed as they collapsed under the cover-fire the Hogwarts students provided. A few curses came their way and everyone blocked or dodged. Ed clapped his hands and pressed them down. An earthen wall rose up a meter high all around the hill, giving them something a little more solid to hide behind. The world went dark, for how long Ed wasn't sure, but his eyes popped open to Ginny slapping his face.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhh," Ed groaned.

"Nice to see you, too," Ginny said. "Thanks for the wall, by the way. It blocked a killing curse a second after you fainted."

"Passed out," Ed corrected blearily as she helped him sit up. "Fainting is from shock. That was from exhaustion."

"You're not too tired to talk," she said. "Are you sure?"

Ed made a face, and looked around. Al was a few feet away, strapping on some gauntlets with alchemic symbols engraved in them.

"Where'd you get those?" Ed asked.

"I made them after you left," Al said. "Ginny brought them for me."

"I summoned them right before we left," she said. "You can fix the window they broke through, right?"

Ed snorted. The arrays on Al's gauntlets reminded him a bit of Major Armstrong's. He hoped Al was spared the Major's other influences. Al looked oddly unaffected by the chaos around them, though in truth he and Ed had never been on a real battlefield. Ed knew they were about to enter one in Leore, right before the cylinder in that rundown Ishbalan temple had sucked them in and spat them out in this crazy world. Ed crawled to the wall he'd made and peeked over.

The fight seemed to be going in their favor. Most of the large dark creatures had been dispatched, and even as he watched, Hermione, as a bear, took down the last of the trolls and dropped to her knees, human again and exhausted. A Death Eater was rushing her from behind, but before he could curse her, Ron Weasley appeared out of nowhere and blasted the masked man off his feet. He grabbed Hermione's elbow and dragged her to the sheltered hill.

Ron 'helped' her over the wall by grabbing her belt and sort of tossing her. She ended up in the lap of a boy still in his pajamas. Ron tumbled over a moment later, narrowly avoiding a curse that left a crater in the earth. Ed was about to ask what the hell was going on when a white light flashed in his face. He flinched, expecting some horrible curse.

"Damn it all to bloody hell!" Ginny shouted. "Colin, why did you bring that?"

Ed blinked away the green spots in his eyes, and saw Ginny was nearly throttling a smaller teenager with a camera. The boy was gargling out something about history and embedded reporters.

"Can anyone see Harry?" Ron asked, as if his sister weren't working her way up to murder.

Al went to the camera boy's rescue as Ed peeked over the wall again.

"He's way over there," Ed said. "I guess he's still Ravenclaw."

Ron started to go over the wall again, but both his sister and Hermione pulled him back.

"What are you going to do?" Ginny asked.

"Help," Ron said.

"Give us all a minute to catch our breath and we'll all go," Hermione said. "Just you won't make that much of a difference."

Ron looked offended, but sat back down. Ed realized the tall teenager's hands were shaking. They were all exhausted. Ed slumped against the earthen wall and sighed. Al hunched down next to him.

"Hey, big brother, I've been meaning to ask; what happened to your hair?"

Ed glared at his younger brother. When it was clear he wasn't going to provide an answer, Ron butted in.

"A mermaid took it," the tall teenager said.

"A mermaid?" Al asked.

"Yeah-" Ron started.

Ed accidentally elbowed him in the gut, and then busied himself with surveillance so no further questions could be asked. A few minutes later two people in robes staggering toward their wall. He was going to knock them back with transmuted earth but recognized Tonks from the search for Fred. As they got closer, Ed saw she was mostly carrying a tall man with a shaved head. They tumbled over the wall, and Ron and Hermione helped them right themselves.

"Ms. Tonks? Mr. Shacklebolt?" Hermione asked.

"Damn," Tonks said, gasping for air. "Right useful this is," she added, tapping the wall.

"What happened?" Hermione asked again.

"Kingsley took something nasty right in the chest," she said.

"It's fine," Shacklebolt insisted. "I just need a minute."

Tonks didn't look convinced. "Can you watch him?" she asked.

"Sure," Ginny said.

Tonks nodded, took a breath, and hopped back over the wall. Ed was a little surprised to see the witch's hair go red as she went charging back to the fight. He was only a little surprised, though. He didn't have much energy to spare. The teenagers looked at the injured Auror. He looked rather gray and was breathing harshly.

"Are you sure you don't want me to apparate you to St. Mungo's?" Ginny asked.

"I'll be fine in a minute," Shacklebolt gasped. "I think it was only a constriction hex, maybe a modified one."

"Right," Ginny said. "Let me know if you change your mind, Sir."

They watched the battle for a few more minutes, as assorted fighters tried to get their second, or third, or fourth (Ed thought he was probably on his ninth) wind. The D.A. fired curses at Death Eaters and creatures that got too close, though most of the enemy seemed unwilling to challenge the small fort they'd created.

Ron and Ginny both tried to summon Hermione's wand back for her, but either someone had a good grip on it, or it had been completely destroyed. It was decided she'd stay behind the wall and keep the D.A in line, since she couldn't seem to find the energy to pull off her Animagus transformation again. The Elrics and the two Weasley siblings were about to jump the wall when Kingsley Shacklebolt made the strangest sound.

An image flickered through Ed's head as he heard it; the basement of his mother's house again, that thing on the floor. The others started asking the man pointless questions as he slumped to the ground. Ed just looked away. He knew a death rattle when he heard one. He looked back toward the battlefield, and the flashing lights. He couldn't see Harry anymore.

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Voldemort could feel it now that he knew what to look for. He thought the destruction of the scroll would have meant mortality, but it hadn't. As Potter--or rather Ravenclaw in Potter's body--left for a few minutes and then returned, he'd confirmed his suspicions. Potter was the last Horcrux.

He'd gone to the Potter household to make his sixth and final hedge against mortality. The infant, Harry, was to be the sacrifice, and Lily Potter, Dumbledore's favorite mudblood, was to be the receptacle. His plan had been to create a Horcrux that the old man couldn't bring himself to destroy, but as Lily obviously had no sense of self-preservation, throwing herself into the path of the killing curse, he had of course, changed his plan.

He'd thought then, that the final division, prepared beforehand in ceremony, had simply not occurred, but now…

It made some sense. When the killing curse had bounced back and taken the life from his body, he would have assumed that bit of his soul was lost, but it must have ended up in the boy. That certainly explained the brat's possession of Parseltongue. Though it didn't explain why he himself could not possess that body.

That damnable prophecy. He couldn't destroy the boy without destroying his last Horcrux. Why did the prophecy Snape gave him say…?

Well, Snape had admitted that he had not heard the end of the prophecy. He'd have to look into that later. Snape was running out of uses, anyway. As if hearing his thoughts, Snape appeared a dozen yards away. Voldemort's eyes met the wizard-in-question's as he approached Ravenclaw and himself, walking unperturbed across the battlefield.

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Harry did not like the situation at all. His arms and legs jerked around out of his control. He could feel everything, though he had no control. Ravenclaw ignored every one of his instincts to dodge out of the way of a spell. Instead, she stood her ground, dragging unbelievable amounts of magic through him to block. He didn't fight her for control, though. That would probably get them both killed.

He had to admit that the spells were far better than anything he could produce, and it was even more obvious that his battle with Voldemort in the Riddle graveyard three years earlier had been survived by luck rather than skill. The prophecy again crawled up into his mind. Was there really some other force out there setting this all up?

A flash of light caught the corner of his eye.

The curse came at their back, and Ravenclaw deflected it in time, but it gave Voldemort the chance he needed. The wand was ripped from Harry's hand and his whole right arm was left numb, stippled and bleeding from the spell Voldemort had used to disarm him. Ravenclaw froze and Harry took over, diving and rolling out of the way of red lights that would have stunned them. He saw Snape had crept up on them and a curse from him forced Harry to pull up short. Voldemort again took advantage. A blue light flashed. Harry's body froze. Ravenclaw did something, and for a moment Harry thought they were going to break free, but then a green light hit them.

Harry had expected the killing curse. He was sure it was odd to feel relief at being hit by a Crucio. The spell restraining him didn't let him fall down, but didn't stop him screaming. When he came back to himself, the Dark Lord was looking him in the face.

"I'm not going to kill you, Potter," Voldemort hissed. "Not just yet. I need to get something back from you first."

Ravenclaw started to chant something, but Voldemort flicked his wand and Harry's jaw locked, cutting off the wandless spell his 'roommate' was trying to enact.

"Rowena," Voldemort continued, taking on the same, almost lecturing tone he'd had in the graveyard all those years ago. "You really should have chosen a better side."

Harry could hear Ravenclaw shouting within the confines of his mind that of course she would reconsider her chosen side, but either Voldemort didn't care, or wasn't bothering to legilimize them anymore.

"Make certain I am not disturbed," Voldemort said to Snape.

Harry saw the potions master nod, but there was something in his expression that made Harry doubt he meant it.

"Firstly, Rowena my dear, you will have to go," the Dark Lord said.

Voldemort's wand was waved back and forth before them, drawing a grid of silvery energy in the air.

_He can't do that_, Ravenclaw said in Harry's mind. _Just as I couldn't get Riddle out of my scroll, he won't be able to separate us. I'm sure of it._

_Then why were you trying to switch sides?_ Harry asked snidely.

_I didn't say he wouldn't kill us both, trying,_ she said.

The grid was as tall as Harry and spanned just beyond his frozen arms. Voldemort seemed satisfied with it and began conjuring up a greenish cloud that flew in Harry's face. He couldn't help but breathe it. His insides twisted, but he couldn't cough. It seemed to be inside his head with him, and Ravenclaw's voice grew faint as the fog filled up the space around them.

_I…don't…know…this…spell-_ Ravenclaw's voice echoed through his head.

Harry looked outward again just as the gird slammed into him. The best analogy Harry could come up with would be electrocution while having your skin pried off with a spatula, but even that wasn't close to right. His eyes wouldn't close and he could see sparks coming off the wire frames of his glasses. Suddenly Harry could cough, and the green mist poured back out of his mouth and nose, only now the mist was shot through with shadows, and for a moment he thought he saw a woman's face in it before it was carried away by the wind.

"And now to get back what's mine," Voldemort hissed.

Harry wondered why nobody was coming to lend a hand. He was frozen facing away from the heart of the battlefield, but he was sort of hoping to overhear a shout of 'Let's all go save Harry'. Voldemort conjured up a new grid and mist, and Harry started to doubt help was coming.

The jolting pain returned, but this time all Harry coughed up was green mist. _No soul in it this time_, he thought blearily.

"How odd," Voldemort said, peering at Harry.

"What is it, Master?" Snape asked.

Voldemort ignored him and seemed to speak to himself instead. "I suppose I will not be able to make a show of this, but that led to failure last time, didn't it, Potter?" Voldemort turned to look at his flagging minions, now obviously losing their fight with the Ministry and the Order. Harry thought he shouldn't be that surprised, as their leader had ignored them in favor of stealing souls in the middle of a fight. "I will dispose of your companions, and then I will deal with you. Snape, make certain he isn't hit by a stray curse," the Dark Lord said as he turned his attention to his other enemies. He started to stride away.

"Not a stray one, no," Snape murmured.

Voldemort whirled, prepared to dodge, but Snape had not pointed a wand at his back. He had centered it in the middle of Harry's forehead, staring him in the face. Harry felt the faintest stab of legilimency, but whatever spells had pulled Ravenclaw out of his mind had left an agonizing mess behind. He couldn't bring up even a hint of a shield. He didn't know what Snape got out of him, but one word seemed to echo as he was released.

_Horcrux__…_

"Of course," Snape said, with a faint smirk. "It all makes sense now. Tell Dumbledore I've completed my task."

Harry knew what was coming, but he couldn't shake the spells that held him. He heard Voldemort shouting out a threat or a warning. He couldn't tell other than that it was negative and loud. Snape was talking over him.

"Avada Kedavra."

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Severus Snape had known from a very early age that there was no such thing as freedom. He'd been under the rule of others since he could walk. He thought learning magic at school would give him the power to make his own choices, but the moment the sorting hat called out 'Slytherin', he'd been doomed.

He was the villain. James Potter and his gang were the heroes. Snape did not put that much stock in the opinions of his peers, but they seemed doggedly determined to remain in the paths set for them, and they pressed in from every side, preventing his escape. It seemed there would be more freedom, more choices, and fewer rules in the Dark Lord's service, but that of course, had not worked out.

Snape had seen, almost twenty years ago, that the Dark Lord would never rule. Tom Riddle was too obsessed with a purity that could not be achieved, and Snape knew he would eventually be purged from the Dark Lord's ranks for his lineage, though it was no more tainted than Riddle's own. Any society the Dark Lord established would collapse on itself when there was no longer an outside enemy to blame for everything. Snape had tried to trade sides, but Dumbledore's rules were no less constraining, if a bit more principled…only a bit more principled.

Snape watched Harry Potter fall backwards, landing spreadeagled on the burned grass. Dumbledore hadn't told him of the Horcruxes; perhaps he did not trust Snape that far. In any case, when he saw in Potter's mind what he was--the last link Voldemort had to this plane of the earth outside his own body, he knew he had to break that link. Dumbledore had made Snape swear an unbreakable vow to do all within his power to end the Dark Lord's reign. The old man had even hinted that it might require taking Dumbledore's life or Potter's or his own. He hated how the old man was usually right about how things would turn out.

From the corner of his eye Snape saw three of Potter's friends running towards his corpse, Ron Weasley and the Elrics. They didn't dodge or even look at the Death Eaters and Aurors on either side, and to his surprise none were picked off during their heedless charge. He knew they'd try to kill him once they got over their shock, but now his focus was on the Dark Lord, who actually could.

"Do you realize what you've done?" Voldemort hissed.

"Of course," Snape said. "I believe that's six horcruxes you've lost _My Lord_. Feeling a bit mortal now, are you?"

"Traitor!" Voldemort hissed, lashing out with a curse that would have taken Snape's head off had he not neatly apparated a few yards to the right. "You were working for Dumbledore all along," he accused.

"Actually, I wanted you both dead," Snape corrected.

Snape fired back a silent blasting curse, but the Dark Lord blocked that with ease. He almost didn't dodge the blasting hex that came from his other side. Mad-eye Moody was coming towards them with an unsteady gait. The Dark Lord hissed, dividing his attention as more of the Order finished their fights and turned their attention on him. Snape didn't know how many of them saw him finish off Potter, but it was probably best to leave as soon as possible. The Order might even be able to finish Voldemort off, if he didn't manage to flee first.

He supposed the Order would keep the Dark Lord busy while he completed his task. He turned his attention on the corpse. Snape raised an eyebrow. The killing curse had frozen Potter's face in a look of mild disappointment. He'd expected the boy's usual thoughtless rage or perhaps fear. Maybe Potter suspected Dumbledore was prepared to eliminate him to end the threat Voldemort presented. This situation certainly didn't follow the words of the prophecy, but in the end Dumbledore didn't put as much faith into the words of Trelawney as Voldemort did.

Snape was rather surprised that he didn't feel more accomplished for getting rid of the last Potter. In the boy's mind he'd seen the destruction of the other Horcruxes, the final task set for him by the old man. Perhaps in the end they had been something alike, carrying out the tasks of their masters, under the delusion that freedom would be granted them in the end.

_Not for you, Potter, but maybe for me._

He'd have to get rid of the body, in case the Dark Lord could somehow use it to retrieve that last piece of his soul. Snape raised his wand.

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Draco Malfoy was not having a good time. There were Gryffindors all around him cheering and firing off curses and talking about how exciting it was to be involved in the fight. He had wanted the Order guards to apparate him back out after they used him to get past the Dark Lord's barrier, but they'd just dragged him around the battlefield, unarmed and flinching, until Ginny Weasley and the suicidal D.A. had showed up. They'd just left him with that group of untrained kids and gone off to fight elsewhere.

The D.A hadn't brought him a wand of course, so all he could do was duck and dodge, until the real Edward Elric showed up and made a wall to hide behind. If any of the Gryffindors noticed there were two people who looked almost exactly alike, they didn't comment on it. Loony Lovegood did say something about his charm not being quite right, but nobody listened to her anyway.

Alphonse Elric had arrived as well, with other people's blood splattered on him and razor edged chain in his hands. Draco wouldn't say anything of course, but he was relieved that Snape hadn't done him any permanent harm.

Eventually Draco got bored of hiding behind the wall and risked looking out at the fight. He had watched as the Death Eaters he'd been terrified of were cursed into oblivion by the Weasley twins, and the most volatile killers in the Dark Lord's service were blown off their feet by Remus Lupin, whose ragged clothes a hag wouldn't even wear.

He knew the Dark Lord was somewhere out there, but was reluctant to try and pick him out. That wizard always seemed to know when someone was looking at him. Draco's eyes fell upon him by accident. Potter and the Dark Lord were sending off such powerful spells it was hard not to look at them.

Draco saw Snape was there, helping the Dark Lord. His stomach dropped. He didn't want to wish harm on his Potions teacher, but he was sort of hoping a stray memory charm would hit the man before he could mention Draco's defection. Then again the Dark Lord probably knew he was the one who helped the Order through the barrier. His Dark Mark was burning like never before.

He hadn't really expected Potter to win, but Draco gasped a bit when he saw Harry's wand blown out of his hand. The Dark Lord had conjured up some sort of silver grid and was using it to torture Potter. Draco was going to call attention to that, but most of the D.A. was looking at Shacklebolt, who had apparently just dropped dead while taking a time-out from the fight. Ginny Weasley vanished with the body. Draco turned back to the fight just in time to see Snape kill Harry.

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Snape was pointing his wand at the unmoving boy. Ron swung his own wand up to curse, but Ed was faster. He slapped his hands to the ground and a sudden buckling of the Earth catapulted him forward. His feet struck Snape in the side and the two of them went sailing across the field, tumbling to a stop in a heap ten yards away when their momentum was spent. Ed was up and kicking a second later. Ron didn't spare them another glance.

_This can't be happening_, Ron thought as he dropped down next to Harry. He put his hand to his friend's throat, and for a moment he thought he felt a pulse, but then realized that it was his own. He put his head to Harry's chest, but there was no heartbeat. The other boy's face didn't look relaxed, or peaceful as he had heard dead people described. Harry's eyes were open, looking out through his glasses. He was frowning faintly, but didn't look surprised.

"Harry!" he said, shaking the dead boy's shoulders rather uselessly, as if he were sleeping through the dorm's alarm again. "Harry!"

This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. They were supposed to win.

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"Hey, Ron?" Al asked, grabbing his wrist so he couldn't shake his friend any more.

Ron jumped as if he had forgotten Al was there.

"What?" Ron asked in a cracking voice.

"The killing curse doesn't really destroy anything, does it?" Al asked.

"What?" Ron choked out again.

"This is a perfectly functional body if I can just put Harry back in it, right?"

"I…I guess," Ron said.

Al pressed the seal he'd carved into his gauntlet and transmuted the metal out into a long narrow blade. He pulled open the collar of Harry's shirt. He pressed the blade down and carefully carved a circle on his chest just below the collar bone. Inside the circle he started the lines of the six pointed star.

"What are you doing?" Ron asked, looking horrified, but not moving to stop him.

"This is what my brother did for me," Al said. "I'm going to bind his soul back in his body."

Al paused to wipe away the blood that was oozing out. He didn't want to miss a line by mistake.

"Isn't…" Ron paused. "Isn't that how he lost his arm? How you lost your whole body?"

"I lost my body trying to recreate my mom from basic components. Harry's body is still here and it seems to be in good condition. My brother lost his arm doing this…but it's just an arm. Me and Ed can match, then!" Al said with strained cheer.

"You can give it my arm instead," Ron said, holding his arm out.

"I don't think that'll work," Al said as he finished the last of the array. "Just make sure I don't bleed to death when we get back."

Ron nodded solemnly. Al drew another transmutation circle on his left arm in Harry's blood. He put his right arm to that array while the left touched the array carved into Harry. He focused, pushing energy through them. Blue light ran through both marks and both teenagers glowed with eerie light. Then purple energy began to arc through the arrays. Al remembered this had happened when the attempt to raise their mother had gone wrong. He'd probably be pulled into the Gate, but if Ed could do this, Al was sure he could. A shadow fell over him, and Al looked up.

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The feeling of being under something damp and unpleasant returned. Ed almost missed ducking the curse Snape flung at him. He risked a look. He froze.

"Al! NOOOOOOO!" he shouted.

But it was far too late for warnings. The Gate had manifested. Ed didn't know if the wizards and witches could really see it the way an Alchemist could, but they all seemed to sense it. All around the battlefield, fighting was petering out. Ed turned his back on Snape and ran towards his brother, even as the monolith split open. Thousands of shadowy arms shot out, grabbing the small teenager and the corpse he'd knelt by.

Al didn't scream. He didn't call for help. He seemed almost calm. Ed saw the red mark on Harry's chest a moment before he was pulled into the dark. Al was dragged in, as well. Ed expected the Gate to slam shut and vanish, but instead, a giant eye appeared in the dark behind the arms. It was taller than Ed and hung at an angle within the Gate.

It looked at Ron, who was still crouched, dumbfounded, a few feet away from it. It looked away, scanning the rest of the battlefield. It came to rest on Ed for a moment and he looked back. But apparently he wasn't of interest, either. The eye finally came to rest on Voldemort, one of the few still fighting. The Order wizards did their best to ignore the Gate, but when arms shot from it and seized their target, they did not interfere.

With an eerie howl, the wizard was dragged across the field. He nearly collided with Ron Weasley, but at the last second the arms lifted him up, clearing the redhead by the narrowest margin, and pulling Voldemort into the dark. The eye closed and vanished. The Gate started to fade, even as the monolith swung closed.

There was really only one thing Ed could do at that point. He brushed his fingers through a cut on his arm and scribbled out an array on his own forehead. He clapped his hands together. The Gate froze, halfway closed. The eye returned, snapping open to focus on him.

"He's not yours!" Ed shouted, feeling the alchemic energy surging through him, so intense it was making his heart shudder and his knees weak.

The arms shot out and grabbed him too. Ron tried to catch him as he passed. The wizard's hand passed right through Ed. The last thing he saw was the red-haired teenager taking a step toward him, and then the Gate's arms blocked him from view.

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Just before the Gate closed, a small pale form came tumbling between the two slabs of stone. It wasn't Harry. Ron rushed forward, grabbing Al's arms and dragging him back as the Gate closed, and faded from view. The boy was awake, but seemed unable to move under his own powers.

Ron didn't know if he should be angry or not. He wasn't really surprised that whatever it was Al did had not worked. That thing…which had appeared and taken Harry…he didn't know how Ed could even think in its presents. Ron wasn't sure what he'd seen but he had a feeling Al wouldn't have made it if Ed hadn't done…whatever it was that he did.

It had grabbed the Dark Lord as well. He wondered if Harry had something to do with that. It had ignored everything else in favor of Voldemort. And now both of them were gone.

Al shifted and sat up, but a moment later bent over and held his stomach as if it hurt.

"I said I'd trade," Al whispered. "I said I would."

"Your brother did something," Ron said, unsure of what else could be said.

"Ed?" Al asked.

"It took him," Ron said. "It tossed you back out."

"What? No!" Al said, struggling to get up, but succeeding only in flailing.

"Give yourself a minute!" Ron ordered.

Al nodded, struggling to focus. Ron looked around and saw a few Death Eaters had started fighting again, and Snape had vanished. Hermione and Draco, (who still looked a lot like Ed, though the charms were starting to wear off,) were running towards them. Ron watched the smaller teenager trying to keep calm. Ron couldn't bring himself to ask the boy to try again. But apparently he didn't need to be asked.

Al pressed his other hand to the array draw in blood on his arm and attempted the transmutation again.

Nothing happened.

Not even a flash of blue light. He brought his arm near his face and peered at it, but the array hadn't smudged. Al nicked one of his fingers with his gauntlet, and drew out another array in his own blood. He focused on it.

Nothing happened.

Ron saw he was panicking now. Al put his hand on the array engraved in the back of his gauntlet.

Nothing happened.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Al wailed.

Hermione and Draco made it to them. They hunched down to avoid stray curses. Al did not notice them. He used the sharp point on his gauntlet to carve a simple transmutation circle into the ground in front of him. He pressed his hands to it.

Nothing happened.

"It's not working!" Al said, his voice breaking and tears starting to leak out. "None of my Alchemy is working."

The wizards and witches traded looks, but clearly didn't know what to say.

"Big Brother's gone."

A lot was gone.

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**Author's Note**: Yeah, that was kind of angsty and kind of cliffy. I'm evil that way. Don't forget to review. There will be more fighting next chapter:**_ Conduction._**


	23. Chapter 23

**Invert**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 23: Conduction**

Al tried to remember what had happened during those few minutes he was once again inside the Gate. He'd felt the transmutation working. He knew Harry's soul was being drawn into the array Al had carved on him. Al had felt a tingling through his left arm, and was certain deep down that he was about to lose that limb. But then the reaction started to sputter, like Harry's soul was caught on something, and things had spiraled out of control. After that, everything went blank until Ron Weasley had dragged him away from the Gate as it closed.

But why wouldn't it open again? There was no theoretical limit. Ed had opened it twice in a row, losing a leg and an arm in turn. Al was sure he could have pulled off the same feat. The problem couldn't be the Gate, could it?

"Something must be wrong with me," Al mumbled.

Could he have burned himself out somehow? Or perhaps his subconscious fear of the Gate was so great he was making himself fail. Al didn't really believe that, though. He couldn't give up on Ed any more than Ed could give up on him. Maybe Ed was doing something, holding the Gate closed from his side to keep Al out of harm's way. Al thought Ed might try that, but didn't think it was likely to succeed. Ed was probably the most stubborn human ever to exist, but that didn't mean he could push the Gate of Truth--through which flowed all Life, Death, and Knowledge--around.

Al sat waiting for what must naturally follow the failure of alchemy: the failure of his life. The only thing holding his soul to his body was the blood rune scribbled on a circle of steel sitting over his heart. But the night wore on, seconds passed and then minutes. Still he didn't come loose. He didn't fall out of the organic shell that had replaced the metal one. But that meant it was only a matter of time, didn't it?

He was only vaguely aware of the battle starting up again around him, or of Ron Weasley trying to pull him to his feet. Al gasped a bit when the red-haired boy was hit with a red light and slumped boneless to the ground, but couldn't really do more than reach uselessly towards him.

"Something must be wrong with me," Al said again, numbly.

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Draco Malfoy flinched as Weasley took a stunning curse and flopped over. He was turning to see where the shot had come from when Granger shoved him. Her hands were shaking and she still didn't have a wand, but that didn't seem to matter. She leapt past him, her hands striking the ground and expanding. She pushed off again with paws, a bear running on all fours towards the wizard who was attacking them.

Snape stood calmly before the charging bear. At ten yards he fired off a stunning curse that struck without effect. At seven yards he hissed something that sent a whip of white light from the end of his wand. It struck the bear--struck Granger--across the right shoulder and side, and blood splattered, but she didn't slow. When the bear was three yards away, bellowing and flinging trails of drool, Snape fired off a blue light. Draco hadn't heard the spell, but suddenly Granger was just a girl again.

She stumbled a bit with the sudden change but managed to close the last three steps between them. Draco supposed Snape had expected her to fall, because he had not raised his wand again. Granger ran right into him and knocked him to the ground. She was shrieking and her right arm didn't seem to be working, but she had a mean left hook all the same. Draco heard something crack, and Snape yelled as well, grabbing the girl by her hair and flinging her off of him. Snape brought his wand around and hit her with a stunning curse before she could get up again.

Snape got to his feet. There was blood running from his nose. It looked broken. Draco stared at his former teacher for a long moment of confusion. Potter and the Dark Lord were gone, why was he still attacking? And then Snape looked at Al, still in shock and trying to use Alchemy to open that dark portal. Draco remembered that Snape hated loose ends. Draco grabbed the wand out of Weasley's hand and stepped between Snape and Al.

"They're gone!" Draco said. "Just leave!"

"That one might be able to bring the Dark Lord back," Snape said, waving in Al's general direction. "He did manage to open that portal before his brother took over."

"He can't!" Draco said. "He's been trying and he can't."

"Better safe than sorry," Snape said casually.

Snape flicked his wand and a silent disarming charm struck Draco in the chest. His recently acquired weapon flew from his grasp and he fell backwards on top of Al. The smaller boy said 'ouch' but did not otherwise react to the threat. He didn't even try to shove Draco off of him. Draco's eyes darted around, but no one else was near them, and none of the Order seemed to be paying attention.

"Move, Draco," Snape said.

"No!" Draco said holding his arms out to the side as if that would keep spells from reaching Al. "Just leave," Draco begged. "Please, just leave!"

"Huh?" Al asked weakly.

"Move, Draco," Snape repeated.

"I won't!" Draco shouted.

Snape raised his wand and Draco flinched, expecting any second to be tossed aside. He hadn't expected Snape to be bowled over by a snarling gray blur. For a moment, Draco thought Granger had gotten back up, but she was still lying there, bleeding, a few yards away. Draco got up but threw himself down again as Snape's wand went off randomly and red light just missed his head. Draco picked up Weasley's wand and cautiously approached the black and gray tangle of robes that was still rolling across the ground. Draco wanted to conjure a light rather than get close, but he thought it might draw more fire. He circled the two entangled fighters, and realized they were both former Hogwarts Professors.

Snape had ended up on the bottom of the pile, with a clawed hand crushing his throat. Snape's own hands were occupied keeping Lupin's other clawed hand away from his eyes. Lupin's face was twisted in a snarl and his teeth looked much too sharp. Draco looked up, but the moon wasn't full, not quite.

Lupin was growling something, garbled words choked almost beyond comprehension by his rage and his curse.

"…killed Lily…killed the baby…killed James…"

Lupin was the stronger of the pair and his clawed fingers sank into Snape's face. He ripped open Snape's brow and cheek but Snape twisted at the last second and saved his eye for the moment, but Lupin's mouth hung open in an animal snarl and he was leaning in.

Draco had seen Greyback tear a person apart while still in human form, but he'd never realized the shabby Professor Lupin could have the same horrible potential. Draco didn't want to deal with either of them if they won. He grabbed his own hair and pulled, trying to think.

"Aguamenti!" Draco shouted.

A torrent of water shot from the end of the borrowed wand, startling both men. Snape recovered first and kicked Lupin away. The werewolf rolled into a crouch and tried to dive at Snape again, but his feet slipped and Snape scrambled away. His hand found his wand. For a moment Draco thought he'd hit Lupin with a killing curse and put them back at square one. Snape looked at Draco, blinking blood from his eyes. Draco pointed his wand at his former teacher.

Snape disapparated.

Draco sighed for a moment, but then a choked-off snarl drew his attention to Lupin, who was still slipping around, trying to stand. Draco moved back a step and Lupin's head snapped up. Lupin's eyes were reflecting light back, like a dog's in the dark. Draco swallowed, his mind once again struggling for ideas.

He knew that the werewolf was not at all fond of him, due to the fact that the Malfoy family had done all in their power to have him jailed after he resigned from Hogwarts. He was sure those thoughts had to be somewhere in Lupin's head at the moment. But Lupin was all about being a Gryffindor and doing the right thing no matter how stupid it was at the time. How could a logical person break through to someone like that? Every last one of his Slytherin instincts kicked in.

"I…I think Hermione is hurt," Draco said. "I think she needs your help, _Professor_."

Lupin blinked, and then shook his head. "What?" he asked, still growling but more understandable.

Draco struggled to mimic the concerned tone he'd heard Al use in every other sentence over the last week.

"I think Hermione needs a Healer, _Professor_," Draco said.

"Hermione?" Lupin asked.

Draco nodded. It took a lot of effort not to call her Granger, but he pulled it off.

Lupin nodded and held up his hand. Draco wondered what he was doing, but then a wand flew out of the dark and landed neatly in Lupin's palm. Draco supposed he had dropped it when he decided to tear Snape's face off. The werewolf stumbled past Draco towards Hermione. He knelt by her side and started muttering something that slowed the blood that was still gushing from her side.

"Is…is everything alright?" Draco asked, trying to keep a few yards between them.

"She's stable now," Lupin said.

After a moment, he spoke again.

"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy," Lupin said. "I..was a bit…lost for a moment there."

Draco just nodded. He kept an eye on Lupin as he walked back over to sit by Al, who seemed a bit more aware of his surroundings, and was trying to shake Ron Weasley awake. He could hear people disapparating all over the field and crouched nervously with the wand in his hand, hoping it would be over soon.

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They'd killed, captured, or driven off the rest of the dark creatures. Without their howls and shrieks, the battlefield was disturbingly monotonous. Now the only sounds were the wounded and the mourning.

Rufus Scrimgeour walked through the triage tent set up by the shielded hill. Those cases too unstable to transport to the hospital were being worked on by an emergency team from St. Mungo's. On the other side of the makeshift hospital, someone had conjured up a tent in which to lay out the bodies.

On one side were the Death Eaters, fifty-seven in all. A low wall of earth separated them from the Order and the Aurors, as if the mortician feared they'd get up and start fighting again. That wasn't terribly likely. It was standard procedure to check for Inferi.

On the other side, there were eighteen dead Aurors. Scrimgeour had heard from St. Mungo's that there were several more dead at the hospital, Kingsley Shacklebolt among them. All things considered, the Ministry had gotten off rather lightly in this fight. It would still be months before they had rooted out all the Death Eaters who hadn't come to the battle. He knew there were hundreds more than had shown their faces this night, but the worst troublemakers were now under their control. The worst of Voldemort's troublemakers, at least.

He looked at the Order's dead.

There was a motley assortment of witches and wizards laid out. Fifty-four in all, none of them looking like soldiers. He recognized the cafeteria lady from the Ministry's lunchroom. He wouldn't have pegged her for one of Dumbledore's people, but he supposed that was the point. He looked for redheads, but didn't find any Weasleys. He wasn't overly surprised. They were a bit like roaches. Nothing but a dozen straight-on killing curses would get rid of them.

Scrimgeour walked outside again. The seventy-plus Death Eaters they'd taken alive had all been transported to the rebuilt Azkaban. There had been a bit of a scuffle when they tried to take Draco Malfoy in. Despite the fact that the boy had the Dark Mark on his arm, the Order insisted he was one of theirs. The Minister was half tempted to take the Order in as well, but he knew the public would never stand for it. Especially since one of the brats from Hogwarts had taken hundreds of photos of the battle and had vanished with his film before the Ministry could censor the pictures.

The members of the Order and the Hogwarts students all milled about on the fortified hill the Alchemist had conjured up during the fight. They didn't seem too put out, even though they were being made to wait in the cold while their statements were processed. Though no students had been outright killed, several were in the medical tent at that moment. The Granger girl was in the Healer's tent at that moment, but was expected to fully recover. There probably would have been many more, had the Weasley girl not kept them all back as support instead of letting them enter the battle.

He saw most of the Weasleys were clustered together, talking in low voices. The Minister doubted anything good would come of it. He saw the remaining Alchemist sitting with them, face blank, eyes puffy and red. Malfoy was with them, as well.

Potter and the loud-mouthed Elric had vanished along with the Dark Lord into that bizarre pool of shadows the quiet Elric had conjured. He would have to get that boy to the Department of Mysteries as soon as possible, but he wasn't going to try to get through the Weasleys to do it. He'd have to do something about them soon, though. He didn't know what power had been called upon to drag Lord Voldemort out of the world, but he certainly wasn't going to leave it in their hands.

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Ginny rushed around the hill, but no one would tell her anything. First, the healers at St. Mungo's hadn't let her out of the hospital. Apparently, you couldn't just drop off a dead Auror and leave. And then she'd hit some kind of ward trying to apparate back in. It had taken her four tries. And now everyone was just milling around in a confused mob. She couldn't find her family anywhere.

"Has anyone seen Harry!" she bellowed.

All the answers came at once, overlapping without making sense.

"I didn't see."

"He and the Dark Lord got sucked into this portal."

"Dementors got them both."

"There was a bear."

"Your brother and Granger got blown up."

"Harry's dead."

Ginny pushed her way through the crowd. Everyone had a different answer, a different wrong answer. She continued to search through the crowd of Hogwarts students for her family, for the Elrics, for Harry, even for Draco, but no one could tell her anything. Finally, Dean pointed her to the hospital tent. She pushed through the crowd and ran towards it.

Ron was pacing outside.

"What happened?" Ginny demanded.

"Snape got Hermione," Ron said. "They said she'd be alright. She's just lost a lot of blood."

"Where's everyone else?" Ginny asked.

"My brothers are watching Draco and Al," Ron said rubbing at his eyes. "Whatever that thing was, Al isn't doing well-"

"What thing? What happened?"

"Al opened that portal and he and Harry and Voldemort got sucked in and Ed tried to undo it and it grabbed Ed, too. It tossed Al out…but not anyone else…"

Ginny nearly fell over. "So they're still in some portal?" Ginny asked. "Then Harry is just stuck there until we can get him?"

"Harry-" Ron started to say. "Harry was already gone and Al was trying to bring him back, that's why that portal thing opened but-"

"What?" Ginny demanded, grabbing his arm. "What portal? What are you talking about?"

"Harry was already dead," Ron said.

"What? How?"

"A killing curse in the back," Ron said. "Snape got him when Voldemort disarmed him. He was just frozen there…"

She didn't stay to hear the rest. She couldn't take it anymore.

She'd gone. For a minute. She'd gone to take Kingsley to the hospital, for all the good it had done, and when she came back, the fight was over and Harry…was…was….

Harry was dead. And Al had tried to bring him back and gotten Ed killed in the process.

She saw the rest of her family, then, along with Malfoy and Al sitting on the ground at the bottom of the fortified hill. Al's face was almost completely blank, and he seemed to be talking to himself. Her father and brothers were looking at the ground. They wouldn't look that upset unless there were something really wrong, worse than Hermione in the hospital. She clenched her fists. She wanted somebody to say something, but all she got were pitying looks from those that bothered to look at her at all. Fred tried to put an arm around her shoulder. She punched him in the stomach.

She had to get away from them. Ginny stormed out onto the battlefield, ignoring the shouts of her father, and the Aurors who were keeping track of the 'civilian' witnesses. She saw a curse crater at least five feet deep, and flopped down into it. Only then did she cry.

If she hadn't gone right at that moment, if she had let someone else take Kingsley…

Ginny knew she wasn't an Auror. She knew she wasn't a professional soldier, and she wasn't the most talented witch, but if she had been there, she could have at least stepped in the way of the curse that killed him. Harry would have seen, then, wouldn't he? He'd have seen that she wasn't a useless tag-along, that she….that she was worthy? She didn't know what she wanted to prove to him, but now she'd never get the chance.

She didn't know how long she sat there, but it didn't seem like much time had passed before Luna Lovegood wandered through her field of vision. The other girl had conjured a loop of silvery light at the end of her wand and was meandering across the battlefield, sweeping it around like a butterfly net. Every once in a while, Ginny saw a wisp of green mist inside the loop, but it would vanish into Luna's wand before she could make heads or tails of what it was. Luna would wander out of Ginny's line of sight and then back into it. Finally, Ginny had to scrub her face with her sleeve and choke off the rest of her sobs just so she could ask the other girl what the hell she was doing.

"Collecting Werp Sherdler's breath," Luna replied. "It's a good night to look for it. There's lots of energy about, though not Blue Moon beams, which draws it out best, you know."

Ginny stared at her with no little bit of venom. How could someone be so oblivious? People were dead and she was just flitting about, channeling her inner bedlamite.

"You know, you look quite upset," Luna said.

"Of course I'm upset!" Ginny said. "Harry's gone, Ed's gone…"

"I did notice that," Luna said. "When do you think they'll be back?"

"They won't be back!" Ginny said coldly. "They're dead."

"I don't think that is true," Luna said.

"What?" Ginny demanded.

"Well, there was that prophecy about them, wasn't there?" Luna said.

"I thought it was lost," Ginny said.

"Things aren't usually as lost as we think they are," Luna said. "Knowledge has a way of hanging on, you know."

"What did it say?" Ginny asked.

"Oh, well you know it said something about neither one could live while the other survived. So either the prophecy didn't apply to them, or it isn't finished yet, because if they aren't dead, and they aren't alive, then we haven't really gotten anywhere, have we?" Luna finished.

Ginny stared hard at her. "But they got sucked into that thing, and we can't…Al can't get it open."

"Well," Luna said. "There's more than one way to lasso a snorkack, you know. That other way generally doesn't work, but it's still there."

Ginny nodded uncertainly.

"Then what do we do now?" she asked.

"I'm sure the answer will come to us," Luna said, waving the net over another bit of green mist.

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Of course you know something is wrong when you've been screaming for hours straight and don't know it. There was a sense of rushing forward, of being pushed, of spinning out of control. He saw everything all at once and then he was blind. There were babbling voices in his ears and in his head, but he couldn't hear his own breathing or his own heart. He thought he heard someone call his name, but there was no sense of direction. He thought he saw arms reaching for him, eyes staring at him through the darkness, but then they would blink and there would be nothing to see. Suddenly, the feeling of motion stopped. Ed looked at his left hand and it flew apart in a cloud of purple-tinged sparks.

"That's mine!" he shouted.

His hand came back together.

Ed tried to focus. This had happened before, hadn't it? What had he done last time to get out? He couldn't remember. How had he gotten here again? That wasn't any clearer.

"Can you………hear me?"

Another voice drew Ed out of his own twisted mind. He looked around; there was no sense of up or down. Ed saw a faint glowing green line. He moved towards it in a sort of flopping locomotion that involved lunging forward when he was solid and trying not to fly apart when he wasn't. It stretched up and down into the dark, through the moving shadows that might be other people's souls.

"Can you………hear me?"

The voice was familiar, but not Al's. Who was he looking for, then?

"Can you….hear me? Ed?"

"Who's there?" Ed asked in a solid moment, still heading for the green strand.

"Me!" the voice answered.

"That really clears things up!" Ed shouted into the darkness.

"Harry!" the voice clarified. "It's me, Harry!"

The strand was close now, just out of reach.

"Who's Harry? Where's Al?" Ed asked.

"Ed, help me, please!"

Ed reached out and grabbed the strand.

An orphanage. A castle. A burning farmhouse. People screaming and running in terror and he was caught up in the tide. Watching people flee from him, rats trying to scurry away. A red-haired woman standing over him, screaming at someone. A red-haired woman standing in front of him, begging. A dark-haired infant looking up at him. A red-eyed man with a colorless face looking down. Green light. Green light. Green light.

Ed let go of the strand.

"Ed!"

Ed looked up along the strand. He didn't know if he'd moved, or if Harry had, but suddenly the other boy was above him. The green strand of light ran right into the scar on Harry's forehead.

Harry was upside down, though his hair wasn't sticking up any more than usual. The Gate apparently didn't indulge gravity. The strand ran into his head and showed up again, like loose stitches along his jaw and the side of his neck, showing up again in his left wrist and sinking back into his hand, sewed all through him with extra loops around the transmutation circle Al had carved into his chest, like a button that kept falling off.

"What is that?" Ed asked, reaching out to touch the strand, but drawing back at the last second.

"I don't know," Harry said. "I think it might be my soul."

"Never seen a soul do that," Ed said.

"You've seen a lot of souls?" Harry challenged.

"Never mind," Ed said. "What do you want me to do?"

The conversation was interrupted as Ed flew apart and came back together.

"What's happening to you?" Harry asked.

"The Gate is taking me apart," Ed said.

"Why?"

"That's sort of what it does," Ed said. "What's on the other end of this?"

"Voldemort, I think," Harry said.

Ed looked down the strand. He couldn't see where it ended. It just seemed to vanish into the blackness.

"Can you cut through it?" Harry asked.

"Why?" Ed asked.

"I don't want to be connected to him anymore."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Ed said. "I think this might be what's keeping you stable."

Ed flew apart again, as if to illustrate.

"I don't care!" Harry said. "I can't stay like this."

"What do you mean?" Ed asked.

"I found out I'm the last Horcrux," Harry said. "I can't get away from him unless I can break our souls apart."

Ed thought for a moment. He grabbed the strand with both hands and pulled in opposite directions. He struggled to focus as the images of other lives mixed with his own memories inside his head. The strand didn't break. He let go, blinking away a vision of a red-haired woman begging for her child's life.

Ed looked up at Harry, whose gaze, he noticed, was not exactly focused. He supposed the whole visions thing was probably worse for him, since it was plugged into his head.

Ed pressed his hands together, planning to transmute his automail into a blade so he could try cutting the strand, but nothing happened.

"Oh shit," he muttered.

He flew apart again, and it was harder to get back together. He wondered if that was the Gate refusing him energy to perform his alchemy with.

"Or maybe we're just clogging up the Gate by not dying," he said out loud. "That might screw with the flow of energy."

"What?" Harry asked.

"I can't transmute," Ed said. "At least, not like I usually can."

Ed felt his pockets for chalk or a pen, but he didn't bother to carry those basic tools with him any longer. He supposed he could just scratch a transmutation circle into his skin with his nails. He looked at the strand again. Reaching out with his automail hand, he grabbed the strand and twisted his wrist. A loop of the strand wrapped around his fist. He slid his hand out, and the loop kept its shape.

"I can't break this," Ed said. "But I think I can use it."

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Ron came up the hill towards them. Hermione was leaning heavily against him with her arm in a sling. Al was glad to see she was alright. If he'd been able to get his head together faster, she probably wouldn't have gotten hurt. Then again, what good was he without his alchemy?

_At least I won't be useless for long_, he thought to himself.

There was a strange pain in his chest just above his heart. He wondered if it was his seal breaking down.

Al lay back on the lawn so he could see the stars. The far edge of the sky was turning faintly blue. It wouldn't be so bad, would it, going after his brother? How long would he have to wait, though? He didn't want to drop dead in front of everyone, especially the Weasleys, since they were so shaken up over Harry. Al wondered if he shouldn't wander off somewhere. Would he get far? How much alchemic energy could be stored in the seal, anyway? How much had his brother's arm been worth?

Winry would have said not as much as Ed's automail, but she was his mechanic and she had to say that. Al shuddered slightly. But now they would never get home, and they would never see her again. All because of that stupid cylinder-

"The Cylinder!" Al shouted, sitting bolt upright, startling the teenagers around him, who were just starting to doze off.

"What?" asked Hermione.

"The Cylinder might have enough alchemic energy stored up in it to reopen the Gate, even if I've been shut off from the source. There might be enough energy in there to get Ed and Harry out."

The Weasleys, Hermione and Draco were all staring at him. Luna was still waving her butterfly net around, but she seemed to be listening.

"But if you open it, can You-Know-Who get back out as well?" George Weasley asked.

"Who cares!" Ron said.

"The Ministry might," Luna suggested. "If the Ministry hears, they might lock him up with all the reversifying hobnishers they have imprisoned beneath the administrative secretary's break room."

"Luna's right!" Hermione hissed.

The universe nearly collapsed in on itself.

"Bill," Hermione continued in the dumbfounded silence. "You were there at the Cylinder before Kingsley put it under the fidelius charm, weren't you? Can you take Al back there, now that the charm is broken?"

Bill looked between the younger fighters for a long second.

"There were a lot of curses around it," Bill said. "I'll go check it out, but I don't know if it's safe to take you all out there. Give me a few minutes to check?"

"Soon," Al said, almost incoherent with worry. "It has to be soon! I don't know what could be happening to Ed while we wait."

"It's your brother," Fred Weasley said with smile. "A few more hours and that Gate will probably pay you to take him back."

Al huddled further into the blanket that had been wrapped around him. The feeling of hope that had sprung up the night before was dying out again. Would he really be able to use the energy from the Cylinder to open the Gate? He couldn't even figure out how to make the Cylinder work, but it was all he could think of.

He saw Bill go wandering off into the dark and then there was a soft popping sound. Frowning, Al began to outline new arrays he might be able to use to draw energy from the Cylinder. He was lost in the calculations, for he didn't know how long, but suddenly Hermione was shaking his shoulder.

Bill Weasley was standing in front of him.

"I'm sorry, Al," Bill said.

"What?"

"The Cylinder, it isn't there anymore."

Al just stared at him and he continued, "There's just a big hole in the ground. Somebody's taken it."

"I…I thought it was…hidden…" Al said weakly.

"We'll find it," Ron said. "Hang in there Al, we'll find it."

Al nodded woodenly. The pain in his chest got worse.

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Ed gathered more and more of the green strand, struggling not to get lost in the memories that weren't his. When he had a few yards to work with, he started the circle. It was rather like bending wire that was trying to suck your brain out. He had finished the outer circle and the inner triangle and the reversal array when there was a sharp tug on the other end of the strand. Ed grabbed it below the loop he had made, and pulled back.

"Maybe you should try to break it again," Harry said for the hundredth time.

"The transmutation circle isn't done yet," Ed said. "I need to put in lines of direction or we won't get anywhere."

Ed didn't really blame him for being nervous. Every pull brought Voldemort a little closer to them.

"Maybe you could chew through the strand," Harry said.

"How about **_no_**?" Ed said, making a face.

"It might work," Harry said.

"Then you try it," Ed replied as he added a phase direction line.

"I can't chew through my own soul," Harry said, as if this were obvious.

"Well I'm sure as hell not gonna do it for you."

The tugging on the far end of the strand was getting stronger. Ed was about to finish the last directional rune, which looked kind of funny because he couldn't separate it from the rune that preceded it, when something solid came out of the darkness beneath them. There wasn't much to see. The light from the strand didn't extend very far, but Ed was pretty sure it was Voldemort.

How many other pale-faced, skeletal men in black robes could be floating around in this place?

An image of the Grim Reaper floated up, probably from Harry's mind. Ed glared at the other boy, though sending the thought through the strand probably wasn't intentional. Ed was about to suggest a battle plan when Voldemort flew apart in storm of purple lightning. He reformed a moment later, but the afterglow of the reaction let Ed see that the wizard only had the barest grip on the end of the strand, rather than being stitched to it like Harry was.

Voldemort seemed to be having as much trouble as Ed keeping himself together under the influence of the Gate. Ed suspected it had something to do with the fact that Harry had extra bits of soul all through him, and Voldemort was barely hanging on to the one he was born with.

Voldemort's obvious trouble would have made them feel confident, had the evil wizard not still had his wand in his other hand. As the momentum from the last tug continued to pull him forward, Voldemort raised his wand and hissed something that sounded very unpleasant. Ed brought his free hand up to protect his face, but didn't let go of the strand. After a long, uneventful moment, he peeked around it. Voldemort was waving his wand again, but nothing was happening, not even flickering lights at the end.

"Alright," Harry said after a moment. "Why isn't that working?"

Ed shrugged, flew apart, and came back together. "This is the Gate, a place for souls, that the living aren't welcome in. Maybe it's because your magic comes from your life. Here, no one really has one."

"So, what do we do?" Harry asked.

"If he gets close, kick 'im," Ed said.

Apparently Voldemort remembered the last kick he'd received from Ed, and veered off to the side. They still had about fifty feet of soul strand separating them. The strand went taut and Voldemort swung back and forth on the end of it, watching them with red serpent's eyes.

"I know what you're doing," Voldemort said. "I won't be lost to this."

"No," Ed said, in as conversational a tone as he could manage, "You're going to be fed to it so we can get out."

Voldemort pulled on his end of the strand and Ed was forced to pull back to keep him from unraveling the array. Unfortunately, this brought Voldemort sailing towards him. Ed tried to brace himself to defend the array, but there was nothing to brace against. Suddenly, a hand came down on top of Ed's head.

Harry had reeled himself in by the strand and pushed off, using Ed's head as a springboard. Ed caught the near end of the strand and held on with gritted teeth, keeping Harry from unraveling the strand from his end, as well.

Neither Harry nor Voldemort were going very fast, but Harry did have the advantage of launching feet first, while Voldemort had led with his face. Voldemort had time to bring up his arms to block, but Ed still had to give Harry the win in that round. They bounced away from each other when Harry's kick landed, but Ed though he heard something snap. He probably would have found it more amusing had he not been getting little bits of the fight from Harry and Voldemort's perspectives as it occurred.

Ed gritted his teeth, pushing away the echoes of two other lives as he twisted the strand around to complete the array. It was as close as he could calculate to a reverse human transmutation. He hoped the extra soul would be enough equivalence. He didn't look forward to paying more limbs into this thing.

He hooked his elbow through Harry's and grabbed the array by the outer edges. Voldemort was still floating there, just out of reach of them, and as Ed closed his eyes to focus, he heard Harry kick him away again. Energy flowed through the array, and the green glowing lines began to arc with purple energy.

Ed knew something was wrong. The reaction was feeding back through him instead of the array. He opened his eyes and saw the green lines of the array were starting to sink into his flesh. The images of other lives started pushing into his mind again. This time he couldn't keep them out. The reaction started to sputter out.

There had to be equivalence in there somewhere, didn't there? Ed tried to push back with images of his own life: the farm house in Resembool burning, the Alchemists' library in Central, Hawkeye telling him to wait in the hall, Barry the Chopper swinging a meat cleaver…

It seemed to work. The array solidified, and a corona of light formed around it, blue and hazy instead of the violent purple lightning it had produced before. Ed tried to think of a direction to move in. He was only vaguely aware of Harry's grip on his arm. Forward, maybe? But what was forward?

Everything faded away, but for the last image in his mind:

Al standing on the bank of the river by their house,

dropping stones into the water instead of skipping them across,

though Ed had just showed him how.

They dropped through the surface,

and the ripples spread outward.

**8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888**

**Author's note:** Well, as those of you who've read DH know, things have gone a bit AU, but for those parts that haven't: hahaha! I so called it.

The next chapter: **_Revert_**

Originally, I was going to end the story here, and start a new story called Revert, but then I realized that would totally piss people off, so it's all going to be one story.

Feel free to review!


	24. Chapter 24

**Revert**

**By Marz**

** Part 1**

The cylinder was twelve feet across and as tall as it was wide. Veins of dark and light stone ran through it in intricate patterns that could only be understood when viewed from the inside. It existed in every world that could conceive of it, inspiring its own creation, oozing into the dreams of those with the necessary skill.

If it had a purpose, it was not fathomable to the human mind. But its powers were obvious.

From it you could reach anywhere, any world where it existed.

But those who used it understood, for such a gain, something of equal value must be lost.

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Severus Snape pitched the cauldron of acid across the cylinder's surface. The green slime oozed into the strange patterns on its surface, eating away at the incomprehensible design. He watched it melt. He could hear the reaction, hissing and sputtering. He could smell the dissolving stone, the eye-watering stench. He pressed a ruler into the hole the acid had made, confirming its depth. He did everything short of tasting the damn thing.

But if he left the room and came back, the cylinder would be whole again.

He knew it was a mystical object. It had managed to spit out two Alchemists who had aided Potter and his little gang in their quest to destroy the Dark Lord. He supposed they had at least in part succeeded. Lord Voldemort had been dragged into a strange dark portal along with Potter's corpse and Edward Elric. As far as Snape knew, and from the hysterical reaction of Alphonse Elric, Edward's younger brother, there was little chance of any of those three returning from wherever that portal went. But Snape couldn't risk even a little. If the cylinder and the portal the Elrics had created were in any way linked, then they had to be destroyed.

After levitating the cylinder to his new base of operations, Snape had gathered all the information he could about it, but Edward Elric had destroyed the Riddle house where most of it was kept, and Snape hadn't been very much involved in the project before it started spitting out enemies. He was fairly certain the cylinder was a gateway between worlds. He supposed he'd have to break up the mystical as well as the physical aspects of the object if he were going to destroy it, but he didn't know enough about it to do that. It resisted transfiguration the same way it resisted acid, explosions, and being dropped from great heights.

Snape left the cylinder to heal itself, and went to the library he'd gathered at his hideout. He researched the problem for another hour, but then picked up a potion text. He slumped down into a chair he'd conjured and paged through the book, relaxing. He supposed he didn't have to rush that much. If anything came out of the cylinder, they'd run into the wards and traps he'd set around it, and he doubted even Voldemort would survive those.

If Edward Elric came through, he wouldn't stand a chance.

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**The Southern Border of Amestris, The Ruins of Ishbal…**

Was the glass half empty or half full? Colonel Mustang glared at it. The bourbon was so watered down it didn't really matter one way or the other. Since Hawkeye wasn't there to stop him, he drank it.

The latest report was on the folding card table that was now his desk. The last table had been much nicer. They'd brought it out on the supply train, but that had been blown up, along with the building he'd been using as an office in the crumbling remains of Ishbal. He wasn't certain if it was Kimblee or Scar who took out the building, but it was gone either way. So were the fifteen people who were working there at the time, including Breda and Fallman: their bodies unrecoverable.

He looked at the paperwork that had survived the fighting that had killed so many good friends, and somehow managed to crawl after him. The siege of Leore was not going well. They'd twice been forced to pull back by massive alchemic reactions that flared up whenever they got more than a dozen soldiers into the city.

_And now there's this_, he thought. _I should've known your death wasn't enough to keep you from causing trouble, Edward. I guess I'll have to wait for mine._

Mustang glared at the report and then got up from his desk. He started marching toward the brig they'd set up. Lt. Havoc fell in step behind him.

They'd built the jail after the first week waiting to deploy. In most circumstances they wouldn't have bothered with an intermediate step like that, so close to the front lines. Executions were the norm when soldiers stepped out of line in a war zone. But things had gone so strangely out of control that they'd have been forced to execute half their own troops if they stuck to the letter of Military Law.

The guards outside the jail saluted as they passed. The first 6 cells were packed with soldiers who'd been drunk and/or fighting, though what there was to drink or fight over Mustang couldn't begin to fathom. He marched past them, getting salutes or obscene gestures depending on sobriety.

The last cell contained only two occupants, the female prisoners, kept separate for their own safety. One of them had short auburn hair and a red tattoo curling up her neck onto her face. Her right arm had been blown off by the Crimson Alchemist, Kimblee, apparently while she was trying to slit his throat. Both her legs were broken in the explosion Crimson had set off to prevent her escape. She wouldn't give her name, but Crimson called her Marta, and claimed she was one of the Chimera that had survived Archer's purge in Dublith. Marta lay stretched out on the only bench in the cell, with her head resting in the lap of the cell's other occupant: Winry Rockbell.

Winry was in the cell thanks to the Crimson Alchemist as well, though she'd come out of her run-in in much better condition. According to her written statement, she'd been crossing the desert to Leore when Kimblee stumbled across her. Kimblee had tried to grab her, (which would have resulted in her horrific and gory death due to the alchemic arrays tattooed on Kimblee's palms) and Winry had clubbed him unconscious with a torque wrench. She'd then tied him up and dragged him to the military camp. Kimblee, when he woke in the medical tent, claimed he was acting in self-defense.

Winry looked up as Mustang came to a stop in front of her cell.

"What happened to Ed and Al?" she asked.

"I told you not to come out here, Ms. Rockbell," Mustang said.

"What happened to them?" she asked. The other prisoners had gone quiet to listen as well.

"An alchemy accident," he said.

"Ed and Al don't just have accidents," she said.

Mustang decided not to point out the fact that they did, all the time. "I don't know how it happened. They were studying the artifact under my orders, and Alphonse somehow activated the array. Ed attempted to free him from it, and it consumed them."

"What artifact?"

"It's classified, and it's already been sent to Central for study. There's nothing out here for you."

"Everyone else comes out here, why shouldn't I?" She was crying now.

"There is a supply train coming out here in two days," Mustang said. "You will be put on that train and escorted back to Central. From there I suggest you return home."

"I need answers."

"Sometimes there aren't any."

Mustang turned and marched out, Havoc still silently following.

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**Somewhere…**

There was a bright light burning his eyes.

Ed blinked and flinched, and realized it was the sun.

_Where? Where? Where?_

His whole body ached and stung and tingled, and something was poking him in the butt. He realized after another addled moment that the lower half of his body was wet. Ed groaned and turned his head.

He was lying half in a river, caught up on a bunch of trampled reeds. He tried to sit up, but ended up sliding further into the water. He went to pull himself around, but his right arm caught on something. He looked over, and saw a hand clenched around his automail.

There was someone lying next to him. His head throbbed as he tried to identify the other person: dark hair, a pale face with a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. Ed was sure he should know this person. Ed wracked his brain and the name slowly came back to him.

"Harry?" he asked.

He pried the other boy's hand free and with a huge effort, sat up.

"Harry? Are you alive?"

The other teenager didn't answer. He was lying there with his eyes closed. His shirt was torn open at the collar, and the blood seal carved into the skin of his chest still oozed blood. His glasses were missing, and Ed could see his eyelids twitching. Ed supposed the other was dreaming.

_Guess that means he's alive, too_, Ed thought.

The sky above them was a horrible, cheerful blue, filled with fluffy white clouds. The other side of the river was a featureless muddy bank. The tall stalks hid the rest of the world from view. He couldn't see anything of the battlefield they'd been on.

"What the hell?" he muttered. "What the hell?"

He looked around for Al, but didn't see him. He'd gone through the Gate after him, and taken his place. So shouldn't Al be out here, then? Ed checked himself, but found no pieces missing. He poked himself in the stomach, but everything seemed to be there, too. That made him incredibly suspicious. He looked over at Harry, but all his limbs appeared accounted for. Ed decided to wait for Harry to wake up and check if anything not-so-visible was missing. Ed had noticed the other boy had landed on enough bent reeds to keep him completely out of the water. Ed glared and considered tumbling him in to wake him up.

_But if neither of us paid a Toll to the Gate…_

Ed's stomach clenched. He hadn't seen Al in the writhing mess inside the Gate, but what if his younger brother hadn't made it back out? What if he'd been taken, once again as the payment for a human transmutation? There was only one other person unaccounted for.

A soft hissing was coming from upstream. It didn't sound like a snake, more like air slowly escaping a tire. Ed crawled toward it, pushing through the plants. There was dark figure sprawled a few feet away, with smoke rising from him. The body was wrapped in a dark robe, but all of the flesh was gray and bubbling slightly as it sublimated in the light. Ed saw a wand in the mushy remains of the hand, and he snatched it up.

He frowned. If the Gate had taken Voldemort in exchange for their passage, why had the body come with him? Was the extra bit of soul Harry was carrying around really enough to pay both of their way out? He didn't trust it--until they found Al, safe and sound, he wasn't going to relax, and that meant nobody else was either.

"Harry, wake up!" Ed ordered.

The other boy flinched.

"Harry!" he shouted. "Get up or get dunked!"

"Uh?" the other responded sluggishly.

After many more repetitions of "Harry" and "get up" Ed finally got the other teenager conscious.

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He didn't want to get up, or speak or even open his eyes, but Ed was still talking at him. He couldn't imagine a more grating voice. His chest ached and stung. His body ignored him as he tried to move. It might've had something to do with being dead.

"Harry! Harry!"

He remembered that green light washing over him…again, and the arms reaching for him, pulling at him as memories flashed through his head, memories that weren't really his. Voldemort's memories and Ravenclaw's and maybe even Ed's, too.

"Harry! Get up or get dunked!"

There was a strange pressure in the back of his head, like someone was stepping on him. It didn't make much sense, since he was lying face up.

"Harry! Hey, Harry!"

_I wish that wasn't my name. Maybe it's not. Maybe I've got a new name now, and I'll lie here till he gets it right._ He considered who else he might be, but his other options weren't that great. _I guess I'll be Harry, then._ He tried to answer Ed, but a garbled hiccup came out instead of words.

"Come on! Get up!"

"um up," Harry finally mumbled.

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Ed glared at the other teenager as he flopped around and finally sat up. He looked tired and confused, which didn't make a lot of sense to Ed, since he had been doing all the work.

"You alright?" Ed asked.

"I guess. Where are we?" Harry asked.

"Don't know," Ed said, "But we aren't going to find out sitting here."

"What's that hissing noise?" Harry asked, feeling around in the rushes, presumably for his glasses. He didn't find them.

"Dead guy over there," Ed said.

"Who is it?"

"Don't you remember?"

Harry froze. "He's dead? Voldemort's dead?"

"Looks like."

Harry insisted on Ed showing him the body, though he couldn't really see it. After Harry finished squinting at the rapidly decomposing corpse, they stumbled away from the rushes, up a riverbank that Ed thought looked a bit familiar.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked.

"That way," Ed said, pointing, though he was pretty sure Harry couldn't see his finger, much less the bend in the watercourse he was directing him to.

"I lost my wand," Harry mumbled.

"Here," Ed said, holding out the one he'd taken off the corpse. "Mr. Melty isn't going to be using it again."

"I don't want it," Harry said, backing away.

"Yours isn't around," Ed pointed out.

"I don't want it!" Harry said again, more emphatically. "It was his!"

"It's not like I'm telling you to put on his old underwear! Just take the goddamn wand!" Ed shouted.

After a bit more pointless argument Harry relented, though his attempts to summon his glasses back to him failed. Ed wondered if the Gate had taken those as payment. He burst out laughing and Harry gave his a strange look.

"Where are we?" Harry asked again.

"I don't know," Ed said. "I was trying to find a way out of the Gate; I think I may've gotten turned around."

"Then where are we going?"

"Maybe…Resembool," Ed said.

"In your world?" Harry asked.

"Maybe," Ed said. "This looks like a place Al and I went hiking, but I could just be imagining things. Half of your world looked like this, too. Maybe we just got dumped out a few miles from the battlefield in Scotland. Tell me if you see smoke."

"How'd we end up…here?"

"You don't remember?" Ed asked.

"I remember Snape…the green light…the killing curse…and everything was dark…arms pulling at me…and eyes floating…looking at me…" Harry said.

"You don't remember the transmutation? The bits of your soul hanging out of your body?" Ed asked.

"No," Harry said. "My soul was hanging out?"

The dark haired teenager looked down at the front of his clothes as if he thought he should check his fly. Ed was about to point out the stupidity of that when Harry gasped, apparently noticing the array Al had carved into his chest.

"What is this?" he asked.

"Blood seal," Ed said.

"What's it do?" Harry asked.

"It might be holding your soul in your body," Ed said. "I didn't really see what Al did, I only noticed when the Gate showed up and pulled the two of you in."

"Is Al-"

"I went in after him. I think I switched him back out, since I didn't see him in the Gate, and he wasn't around where we came out-"

"I'm sure he's fine," Harry said.

Ed grunted.

"So how will you know for sure if we're in your world?" Harry asked, as if he expected Ed to know all about dimension hopping.

"I guess if that's Resembool a few miles around that bend, it will be pretty conclusive."

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There wasn't much Harry could do besides follow. His arms were numb and his hands were filled with pins-and-needles tingling. When Ed had gotten a few yards ahead of him, Harry pulled open the collar of his shirt and inspected the seal Alphonse Elric had carved on him. Blood oozed from it. He wondered if it really was all that kept his soul from falling out of his body.

_Was I really dead?_ he wondered. He didn't know enough about Alchemy to know if it could really raise the dead, but he knew magic couldn't, not for real anyway. He hoped he wasn't some sort of zombie or Inferi. He also hoped Alphonse Elric hadn't died for this. It was bad enough he'd gotten his own parents and Sirius killed. He didn't want to carry the weight of another kid dying in his stead as well.

"Walk faster!" Ed ordered.

_Now if Ed was dead…_ he grumbled to himself.

"What happens if this heals over?" Harry called out.

Ed turned around and stomped back to him. "Then you'll have a scar with the same array, and you'll be fine."

Ed sounded like he was making things up.

"Come on," Ed ordered.

Harry wanted to try a spell, but his hands only fumbled as he tried to command Voldemort's wand.

"Can you wait up a bit?" Harry called.

Ed glared back over his shoulder at him. "What?"

"Wait up, alright?"

"Why? We've got a ton of shit to do. There's no time for sitting around!" Ed declared.

"I was dead, damn it! I can't just run around like it's nothing!"

"Is something wrong with you?"

"Aside from having a couple of extra souls take over my body, getting killed, and getting dragged into an alchemic gate? Well, I think I might have sprained my wrist a bit when we landed."

"Al's in trouble," Ed said. "And your pals are still on a battlefield in another world. We don't have time for you to have a personal crisis. Walk it off or something!"

With that, Ed turned and continued storming along, and Harry was forced into a stumbling jog to keep up. The concept of being in another world was a little hard to swallow. He hadn't really doubted that Ed and Al had come from somewhere far away, but this place didn't seem that different from England. He sort of expected another world to have purple trees, or dinosaurs or something.

Of course he hadn't really put that much thought into where Ed had come from. He just assumed they'd find that cylinder and use it to send the Alchemists on their way. Using magic to go wherever you wanted in the blink of an eye sort of messed up his sense of logistics.

_And now I'm stuck here._

Harry palmed Voldemort's wand again. He was starting to wonder if his magic worked at all in this place. He squinted and pointed the wand at a parched-looking hedge on the side of the road. It was his intention to transfigure it into a pair of glasses.

"Verto!" he said.

A blue burst of energy came from the end of the wand and the hedge caught fire.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ed called back.

He was already at the top of the next hill.

"Nothing," Harry called back. "Aguamenti!" he said, trying to conjure water.

Another burst of blue energy came from the wand--this time the burning hedge was blasted apart and flaming twigs flew all over, starting other fires.

"Crap," Harry said.

"What the hell is wrong with you? You get to my world and you start burning stuff?" Ed demanded, clapping his hands together and pressing them to the ground, the earth under the fire rumbled and then rolled over itself, smothering the flames.

"I wasn't trying to do that!" Harry said. "I think I've got some wires crossed or something."

"Well, don't do anything else. I think I can see the town from up there. Come on."

Harry frowned and followed.

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**Central…**

The researchers watched it nervously. They had all done their best not to touch it as it was taken off the flatcar and lowered by crane into the warehouse. They'd observed it carefully in the weeks since it arrived, but without breaking it open, they had no hope of understanding its inner workings. For the past few weeks they'd watched the cylinder gather dust.

But now the Fuhrer wanted a report, and they had nothing new to tell him. He'd come all the way back from the base outside the ruins of Ishbal to hear what they'd learned. He wasn't going to be happy.

"Do you have any idea what it does?" Fuhrer Bradley asked as he walked in slow circles around the cylinder, keeping his eye on it. The patched eye was towards the head researcher, though the man thought the Fuhrer could probably see him just as well from his blind side.

"No sir, but if it absorbed the Elrics, they might still be inside."

"Has it done anything since you brought it in?" the Fuhrer asked.

"There might've been some energy discharge through the exterior arrays. It flashed briefly."

"Has anyone tried to activate it yet?"

"No, not after hearing what happened-"

"Get someone to try. There are always washouts from the State Alchemist's exam hanging around Central. A cut-rate alchemist shouldn't be too hard to find."

"But even we don't know what it will do-"

"You don't need to understand it. Just turn it on."

"But sir-"

"Are you disobeying a direct order?"

"No sir! It's just…what if something comes back out?"

"Recruit it."

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**Author's Note and Tiny Time Line: **Yeah, I know. I haven't posted in forever. So for those of you trying to remember what's going on, Ed and Al got sucked out of their world, into the wizarding world about a month ago. They had a big adventure and kicked butt in Harry Potter's world. In their own world, the military had been setting up to invade and "pacify" the city of Leore. Without them there for it, things have gone a bit AU from the FMA anime storyline. If I don't explain well enough where things and people have gotten to, let me know!

Don't forget to review, especially you people who put this story on a faves or alerts list without reviewing. Come on! Click the review button and write something in that little box!


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